MAIN WEATHER AND CLIMATE TRAITS IN THE NORTHEN HEMISPHERE AS OF AUGUST 2021
Air Temperature
During the first two decades of August, abnormally hot weather persisted all over the European Territory of Russia. Unprecedented maxima of air temperatures were recorded in the Volga Region, Bashkiria, Cis-Urals and southern Urals, with the thermometer readings reaching +35…40° and remaining as high as that for several days in a row. To some extent, the heat subsided not earlier than in the third decade, and solely in the North-Western Federal District and the north of the Central one to end up with normal decade-averaged temperatures, and with frosts on some days in the Murmansk and Arkhangelsk Regions as well as in the Karelia and Komi Republics. But the weather in the Southern, North Caucasian, Volga and Ural Federal Districts remained hot until the end of the month, culminating in high temperatures never observed before in a number of regions. In the outcome, the average temperature of August in the ETR became the fifth highest since the beginning of regular meteorological observations in 1891: the third highest after 2010 and 2007 in the Southern Federal District and the second highest after 2016 in the Volga Federal District.
The temperatures in the Asian Territory of Russia fluctuated more sharply. In Kolyma and Chukotka, autumn frosts occurred as early as in the first decade, and the decade-averaged temperatures were sub-normal. New daily minima were recorded along the Sea of Okhotsk in the Khabarovsk Territory. Cold air broke through to the outermost eastern Russian regions and the north of Siberia on some other days of August as well, but the air temperature in Siberia and in the Far East was higher than normal for most of the month. This was especially true for the south of Western Siberia (the Altai Territory and the Omsk and Tomsk Regions), Yakutia and the Far East (the Khabarovsk Territory and the Amur, Sakhalin and Magadan Regions) where the air temperature reached +30-35° in some places. New daily temperature maxima were recorded multiple times. At the end of summer, the air temperature in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District exceeded +30° for the first time in history. The monthly-averaged air temperature in the Asian Territory was the second highest after the record-breaking hot August 1995.
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.