Foreigners think of Russia like this: “It is very cold in Russia!” And of course they’re right. But only partially. Why so? Naturally, In Russia there are some places with very low temperatures. But if you look at the map, you will see that a lot of Russian territory is located far away from the seas and the oceans. What does that fact mean?
When the sun is shining – it’s warm. No sun – it’s cold. In summer it is +30 C. In Winter it falls to -30 C. That is a 60 degree difference between winter and summer temperatures, and it is called a continental climate.
«Moscow Alps». Right in the heart of Russia – in Moscow – there is a small ski resort just near the city center
Continental climate is a climate formed as a result of the atmospheric conditions over large land masses due to the lack of significant quantity of water nearby (seas, lakes and oceans).
Because of Russia’s location the country has continental climate on most of its territory. This means that there is a great gap between winter and summer temperatures on most Russian territories.
But the Arctic is a really harsh territory in the north of Russia. If you want to experience spring or fall in the Arctic – you will most likely fail. Spring and autumn in the Arctic happen only on paper! But in reality they have very long winters and very short “summers” when the ice starts melting just a little.
In Siberia – in the Ojmjakon village – some time ago the temperature of -68 C was recorded.
And yes, this is the absolute winter temperature record on the mainland and in the northern hemisphere as well!
In this village, where in winter the sun stays on the horizon only for 3 hours, but in summer it shines for 21 hours, people do live. And, according to some reports, there are even centenarians among them. Perhaps this fact is easy to explain. There is no pollution in that region and people have a lot of physical activity and they eat a lot of fatty fish.
As for global warming – because of Russia’s geography – it is more evident in Russia than in other parts of the world. This means that you will get fewer and fewer opportunities to admire snow and frost if you visit Russia in winter in the future.
Author: Alexey Gureev (http://todiscoverrussia.com/)