MAIN WEATHER AND CLIMATE TRAITS IN THE NORTHEN HEMISPHERE AS OF FEBRUARY 2020
Air Temperature
Alongside the other months of this winter, the air temperature in February in most part of Russia remained above-normal. From the first days of February to the end of the month, new record-breaking temperatures were reported in many regions, e.g., in Siberia, Yakutia and Trans-Baikal, as well as in the central, north-west, polar and southern territories of Russia. The average air temperatures in each of the three decades exceeded the normal values by 6-15° or more in most of the country. In Taimyr, the anomaly in the third decade reached 16-17°. In Khatanga, the daily-averaged temperature was almost 25° above the normal value on February 25.
The north-west was the only part of the country to resist this unprecedented inrush of heat. There, the weather was remarkably colder than usual in the first decade, e.g., by 5-10° or more in Chukotka, but the decade-averaged anomalies became close to normal later on.
In any case, February in Kamchatka, Kolyma and Chukotka was colder than normal on the average (by 2-4° or more in some places), but the rest of Russia was obsessed by fantastic heat, with the monthly-averaged temperatures exceeding the normal value by 10-12° or more in Siberia and in the Urals, and by 4-8° or more elsewhere in the European and in the Asian parts of the country alike.
MAIN WEATHER AND CLIMATE TRAITS IN THE NORTHEN HEMISPHERE AS OF JANUARY 2020
Air Temperature
Throughout January, abnormal warmth persisted in most of Russia. The only exception was the Far North-East where the weather was noticeably colder than normal in the first decade. Yet later on, the warmth triumphed over the cold even there. In January, unprecedented maxima of air temperature were recorded all over the paths from the western border to Chukotka and from the coasts of northern seas to the Caspian Sea. In some places, these maxima persevered for several days in succession. January temperature standards were overridden by 4-12° or more everywhere save the north-east of the country where they were met to some extent. As a result, January 2020 became the second warmest in the meteorological chronicle of Russia: its average temperature was surpassed only once, by about half a degree in January 2007. The temperature background in January on the Russian Plain was the most high-pitched in history. In the Central Federal District, the average temperature of January 2020 reached the absolute maximum and exceeded the previous record-breaking value of 2007 by almost one and a half degree: there, the monthly-averaged temperature of January was positive for the second time in the history of meteorological observations. In this district, the "crown of winter" turned out to be warmer than its predecessor, December, and just 0.4° colder than November. This January was the second warmest in history in the north-east of the country, in the Volga Region and in Siberia, and entered the Top Ten of warmest ones in the south and in the Urals.
The weather was mostly warm in East Asia. The average January temperatures in Mongolia, in the north of China, in Korea and in Japan were 2-4° above the normal values. The anomalies were approximately the same in the countries of South-East Asia as well.