MAIN WEATHER AND CLIMATE TRAITS IN THE NORTHEN HEMISPHERE AS OF JANUARY 2021
Air Temperature
January 2021 was cold in Russia – primarily, in the Asian territory where it was among the 15 coldest ones in the entire history of regular meteorological observations in the country since 1891. The weather was abnormally warm in Taimyr, Evenkiya and the north-west of Yakutia in the first decade only, but generally remained cold everywhere from the Urals to the Pacific Ocean during all month, save for the south regions of the Altai and Primorye Territories, the Republic of Buryatia and the Altai Mountains. New temperature minima as low as -55…-60° were recorded in Altai, Chukotka, Yakutia, the Krasnoyarsk Territory, and the Omsk Region. The monthly-averaged air temperature hit the Top Ten of the lowest values in the history of meteorological observations in the north of the Far East, and the Top Twenty, in its south. The anomalies of this temperature reached or exceeded -2…-6° in the Urals and to the east of them.
The thermal footprints were quite different in the European territory of Russia: colder than usual in the second decade (with anomalies down to -4…-8°) but basically warmer in the first and third decades when the monthly-averaged temperatures were 6-8° higher than normal. New records of heat were set in the south of the ETR in the first decade, culminating in Sochi with a new absolute maximum air temperature of 22.4° never observed before in January. In the third decade, daily temperature maxima were recorded in many locations of the Central, North-East and Volga Federal Districts. As a result, the anomalies of monthly-averaged temperatures in the ETR were +2…4° or higher. The weather was warmer than ever on the Arctic Islands of Russia as well. Regarding Russia as a whole, the monthly-averaged air temperature in January was below normal: the last time this occurred was in January 2014.
The monthly-averaged air temperatures in most of Mongolia and in the east of China were above-normal (2-3 or more degrees higher in some places), whereas these figures in the rest of East Asia were close to normal.
MAIN WEATHER AND CLIMATE TRAITS IN THE NORTHEN HEMISPHERE AS OF DECEMBER 2020
Air Temperature
The abnormally cold weather which settled in the second half of November in most of the ETR became even colder in the first decade of December. Frosts in the Kursk, Belgorod, Yaroslavl, Ivanovo, Kostroma, Samara, Volgograd and Astrakhan Regions and in the Republic of Kalmykia reached 20…-25°. Freezing down to -3° was observed on the coasts of Crimea and of the Krasnodar Territory. In the outcome, the decade-averaged temperature in the south and in the Volga Region turned out to be 2-6° lower than normal. At the same time, the weather was abnormally warm in the Russian North where the normal values of decade averages were exceeded by 5-10°. In the second decade, warmth extended its boundaries within the ETR. The weather became 2-3° warmer than usual in the central region, and the temperatures sometimes reached new daily maxima in the south (in Anapa and Tuapse). The Volga Region was the only one where it was still noticeably colder than usual. Yet, the warmth came even there in the third decade. The average temperature was above its normal value everywhere apart from the Lower Volga: 1-2 degrees above in the Volga Region, and 4-5 or more degrees above it in the south. All-time highs of air temperatures were recorded in the Crimea and Caucasus, and the thermometer readings were close to the +20° mark sometimes.
Over the whole duration of the month, the temperature contrasts were even more apparent in Siberia where the average temperature in the first decade was 8-11 or more degrees higher than normal, but the unprecedented colds came in the second and third decades. Frosts below 50° invaded a huge territory in the east of the country and reached -54…-56° in Yakutia and Evenkiya. Colds that had never been observed before were recorded in Western Siberia. In the third decade, the decade-averaged temperatures were lower than the normal values by 10-13 or more degrees. The monthly temperature patterns in the Far East resembled those in Siberia: warm weather in the first decade (anomalies of +5…8°) followed by cold weather in the second and third ones (anomalies reaching -6°) everywhere save for the north-eastern region where warmth prevailed during the whole month. Such temperature distribution in December resulted in the monthly-averaged air temperatures 1-3° higher than normal in most of the ETR excluding the Volga Region where this temperature was by about the same value lower than normal, just as in the Urals and in Western Siberia. In most of the Far East (Yakutia, Trans-Baikal, Kolyma and Chukotka), warmth prevailed on the monthly average, and the only areas where the weather was somewhat colder than usual were Primorye, Sakhalin and partly the Khabarovsk Territory. Neither in any federal district, nor in Russia as a whole, did the monthly-averaged temperature reach the record-breaking values in December.