MAIN WEATHER AND CLIMATE TRAITS IN THE NORTHEN HEMISPHERE AS OF MAY 2019
Air Temperature
In the west of Russia, the anomalously cold weather that settled there in the end of April preserved in the beginning of May. Cold air from European countries was still flowing to Russia. Sub-normal temperatures recorded in the Leningrad, Pskov and Novgorod Regions culminated in night frosts and record-breaking temperature minima in the Kaliningrad Region. The frosts and unprecedented colds in the first decade were also observed in Central Russia, the Upper Volga Region and the Urals. Of all the ETR, the abnormal warmth at that time was only in the south of Russia (the Krasnodar and Sevastopol Territories) and in the Middle and Lower Volga Regions: there, the thermometer readings could reach as high as +30°.
In contrast to this, the weather was very warm in the east of the country. New air temperature maxima were repeatedly recorded all the way from the Urals to Chukotka and Primorye. Sometimes, the air heated to +20° in Yakutia and almost to +30° in the south of the Urals and of the Far East. The normal values of decade-averaged air temperatures in the Urals and in the north of the Far East were exceeded by 5-7°.
Further on, such abnormal high-temperature background started to fade throughout the country, and the anomalies normally decayed to at most +2…4° in the second and third decades. Spots of anomalous heat creating new temperature maxima still survived in the Volga and Cis-Ural Regions in the second decade, but the bitter arctic cold rushing down to the ETR and Siberia in the third decade brought frosts and even record-breaking colds to Central Russia, to the west of the ETR and to the south of Siberia. In the second decade, the air temperature anomalies in the south areas of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, in Khakassia and Tyva were -2…-5°.
MAIN WEATHER AND CLIMATE TRAITS IN THE NORTHEN HEMISPHERE AS OF APRIL 2019
Air Temperature
Abnormally warm weather that reigned in Russia for most of March smoothly migrated to April. In the first decade, the temperature was above normal across the whole country, the anomalies increasing northwards and reaching +6…14° in the arctic region of Siberia and of the Far East. The record-breaking temperature maxima were repeatedly recorded in Yakutia, in the Magadan Region, Chukotka Autonomous district, Kamchatka and northern Krasnoyarsk Territories, Altai Mountains, and in the Kaliningrad Region in the west of the country.
In the second decade, the weather abruptly changed its temper. Significant excess heat survived solely in the North-East Russia, in parts of the Primorye Territory where new records of warmth were set, and in the Russian North. In the rest of Russia, warmth was ousted by arctic cold whose intrusion was especially remarkable in Western Siberia where the anomalies of decade-averaged temperatures became negative (-1…-3°). And the latter was also true for the European territory (viz., in the South and Volga Federal districts) where the decade-averaged air temperature was, if slightly, below normal as well. There, the weather on certain days was nevertheless warm, occasionally reaching the record-breaking temperature maxima in the Tambov, Penza, Saratov and Sverdlovsk Regions.
In the very beginning of the third decade, it became colder in the Volga Region, in the Urals and in Western Siberia: in essence, winter returned there. New temperature minima were recorded in the Sverdlovsk, Ulyanovsk, Penza, Samara, Volgograd and Orenburg Regions. The same was observed on certain days in the Central Russia and in the south of the country. In the last days of the month, night frosts came to the Moscow Region. The anomalies of decade-averaged temperatures in the Urals and in West Siberia were -3…-5°. The air temperature was above normal in the west and the east of the country only, approximately by 3-7°.