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.

MAIN WEATHER AND CLIMATE TRAITS IN THE NORTHEN HEMISPHERE AS OF NOVEMBER 2020

Air Temperature

Warm autumn weather survived in the first decade of November over the whole territory of Russia. The decade-averaged air temperature was 3-6° above the normal value in the ETR, and 3-10° above in the Asian territory of Russia. In the first decade, this temperature was close to normal in the south of the Far East only, or even somewhat lower than that in the Trans-Baikal. New records of heat were set in the north-west and north of Russia, in the Urals, the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Evenkiya, the Tomsk, Novosibirsk and Kemerovo Regions, and the Altai Territory.
In the second and third decades, positive temperature anomalies in the north of the ETR, in Siberia and the Far East grew higher: up to 4-6° in Karelia as well as in the Murmansk and Arkhangelsk Regions, and up to 10-15° beyond the Urals. The thermometer readings rose to +15° in Western Siberia. The air warmed up as never before in Yakutia, in the Trans-Baikal and Evenkiya, in the Turukhansk Territory, in Chukotka and Kamchatka, in the north of the ETR and in the Arctic. In the Angara Region where twenty-degree frosts are usually observed at this time of year, the air temperatures retained in the range of about -2…-10° for the whole week. Yet, the onset of winter manifested itself at last. In the second decade, cold weather came to most of the ETR. Frosts down to -9° were recorded in the Kuban, and came to the Crimea and the Stavropol Territory in the night-time. In the Perm Territory, Bashkiria and the Orenburg Region, the thermometer readings would sometimes drop below the -20° mark, while in Yakutia and the Magadan Regions, frosts reached as low as -40°. In the second and third decades, the decade-averaged temperatures in the centre and south of the ETR were 1-3° lower than normal.