MAIN WEATHER AND CLIMATE TRAITS IN THE NORTHEN HEMISPHERE AS OF JULY 2021
Air Temperature
Exceptional heat keeping the ETR enthralled in June did not subside for most of July. In the first and second decades of the month, the decade-averaged temperature anomalies were +2-6° and more in the ETR, and the heat crossed the 40° mark in the south of Russia. New daily temperature maxima were recorded in the Crimea, in the Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, in the Rostov, Volgograd and Astrakhan Regions, in the North Caucasus and in Kalmykia, as well as in some north-western regions of the country such as Karelia, the Yaroslavl and Leningrad Regions including St-Petersburg where the coastal waters in the Gulf of Finland heated above +26°. The monthly-averaged air temperature in the ETR tailed the Top Ten of the highest ranked values since 1891, and was 2° below the fantastic value recorded in July 2010.
The average July temperature in the Asian territory of Russia occupies an even higher position, closing up the Top Five of record-breaking achievements and yielding only a few tenths of degree to July 1998. The most impressive anomalies of monthly-averaged temperatures, up to +3-5° and above, were reported in Yakutia and in the Far East. New daily maxima were recorded multiple times in Chukotka, Kamchatka, Primorye, in the south of the Khabarovsk Territory, on Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. The weather remained as hot as +30-38° for two or more weeks in some places. In the south of the Far Eastern Federal District, this July was the hottest in the entire history of meteorological observations.
MAIN WEATHER AND CLIMATE TRAITS IN THE NORTHEN HEMISPHERE AS OF JUNE 2021
Air Temperature
Cool or occasionally even cold weather that settled in Central Russia at the end of spring gradually migrated to the beginning of summer. June started with a frosty night in the Tver and Yaroslavl Regions (air temperatures in the range of -2…-4°), and with weak frosts in the Moscow and Kaluga Regions. The average air temperature in the first decade of June was 1-2° below its normal value in the Central Black Earth regions. However, everything changed later on: from the second decade to the end of the month, abnormally hot weather was observed everywhere in the ETR. New temperature maxima were gained again and again in the area from the Russian North to the North Caucasus. Sometimes, they were recorded for several days in succession, and some of them, e.g., in Saint-Petersburg, were new absolute values ever observed in June. The thermometer readings rose above +35° and closely approached the forty-degree mark. The anomalies of heat in this territory reached 2-5° in the second decade, and 5-9° or more in the third one. As a result, the monthly-averaged temperature exceeded the normal value by 2-4 or more degrees, and this June in the ETR was ranked the hottest one in the history of meteorological observations. The rank was the same in the North-West Federal District and in the city of Saint-Petersburg in particular. This June in the Central Federal District was the hottest in the 21st century and the third hottest in history.
Another region to attain extremely high temperatures during the month was the Far East, most notably, Yakutia where the air temperature rose above 30-35° sometimes. New daily maxima were repeatedly recorded both in the south of the Far East (in the Amur and Sakhalin Regions and in the Primorye Territory) and in its north (in the Republic of Yakutia, in the Magadan Region and on the Arctic coast), with the anomalies of monthly-averaged temperatures reaching 2-5° or more. In the north, this June was the third warmest in the history of meteorological observations. Moreover, the last three years (2019-2021) occupy all the top three lines in the ranked list of monthly-averaged temperatures.