MAIN WEATHER AND CLIMATE TRAITS IN THE NORTHEN HEMISPHERE AS OF MARCH 2021

Air Temperature

Recall that March of the previous year was the warmest March in the ETR for the entire history of meteorological observations. Judging by the trend of recent years, it seemed that this month could now be called warm rather than cold time of year. But no, March 2021 proved that this would be too early to do. Most of the time, cold anomalies of air temperature prevailed in the ETR. New minimum values were recorded in the Russian North, central Russia and the Volga region: more exactly, not just the daily minima, but the historical minimum temperatures for March. 35-degree frosts crackled in the north of the ETR. Warmth came in the third decade only, and what is more, to the west, north and centre of Russia, but not to the southern region where subnormal temperatures were observed still. As the result, the monthly-averaged air temperatures in most of the ETR were close to their normal values, that is, normal values known to be calculated for 1961-1990, years before the prime of global warming.
In the Urals and to the east of them, the picture was different. This month in the Ural Federal District was colder than usual. Colds down to -40° and below were still freezing the north of Siberia and of the Far East. March in Taimyr, Evenkiya, the north-west of Yakutia, parts of Chukotka and the north of Kamchatka was colder than normal. It was 2-4° or more degrees colder in Siberia and the Urals. Yet, the record-breaking heat often prevailed in the southern regions (the republics of Tyva and Buryatia, the Tyumen, Irkutsk, Amur and Sakhalin Regions, the southern areas of Kamchatka and the Kuril islands). The monthly-averaged temperature in these territories was 2-4° above the normal value.

MAIN WEATHER AND CLIMATE TRAITS IN THE NORTHEN HEMISPHERE AS OF FEBRUARY 2021
 
Air Temperature
 
Abnormally warm weather at the end of January in the ETR grew colder with the onset of the last month of winter. At the beginning, cooling spread solely to the North-West Federal District and to the northern regions of the Central one: there, the average air temperature in the first decade became close to normal or a bit lower than that, by some 1.0-1.5°. The weather in the south of the ETR and in the Cis-Urals was still so warm that numerous daily maxima of air temperature were updated at that time. Nevertheless, Arctic colds came there starting from the second decade, and the decade-averaged air temperatures dropped to -4…-13° below their normal values. Frosts reached as low as -35…-50° in the north including the Arkhangelsk and Murmansk Regions and the Komi Republic, and -40° or below in the south of the Urals. On February 22, a temperature of -51.3° was recorded in the Komi Republic: this was the first time since 2017 when the air temperature in Europe decreased below -50°. Unprecedented colds of -30…-35° were observed in the Moscow region. The temperature dropped to -15° in the Crimea, and a powerful fast ice was formed in the Kaliningrad Bay for the first time in the 21st century.