MAIN WEATHER AND CLIMATE TRAITS IN THE NORTHEN HEMISPHERE AS OF MARCH 2019
Air Temperature
In Russia, the first month of calendar spring was very warm. March 2017, the warmest one in the history of meteorological observations in this country, is still in memory: back then, the monthly-averaged temperature exceeded its normal value all over Russia, with the anomalies as large as +10…14° in Siberia. This time, the anomalies were +8…10° in the same region, and were if at all negative nowhere else but in parts of Kamchatka and on some of Kuril Islands. March 2019 was the third warmest March in the Russian meteorological chronicle. In Siberia, the monthly-averaged temperature reached its absolute maximum and surpassed even the 2017-year value; in Urals, it became the second highest and in the Volga Region, the fifth highest one since the first year of regular meteorological observations, i.e., since 1891. Aside from Siberia, the unprecedented maxima of air temperatures were also recorded in Trans-Baikal, in the Khabarovsk and Primorye Regions, beyond the Arctic Circle, in Chukotka and in Central Russia.
MAIN WEATHER AND CLIMATE TRAITS IN THE NORTHEN HEMISPHERE AS OF FEBRUARY 2019
Air Temperature
In Russia, sharp temperature contrasts were observed in the first decade of February. Indeed, the anomalies of decade-averaged temperatures as high as +6…8° in the ETR and the daily temperatures reaching their new maxima in the south of the Krasnodar Territory or in Crimea were accompanied with the record-breaking colds beyond the Urals, in all Siberia and in the south of the Far East: down to -45° or below in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Irkutsk Region and Trans-Baikal, and down to -40° or below in the south of West Siberia, in the Khabarovsk and Primorye Territories, as well as in the Amur Region and Sakhalin.
Everything changed in the beginning of the second decade. The warmth unprecedented for this time of year arrived in Siberia. Of course, the thermometer readings were still below zero as a rule, but the decade-averaged air temperature exceeded its normal value by as much as 8-15° even to end up with thaws in the Trans-Baikal. At the same time, the weather remained exceptionally warm in the European Territory and in Chukotka. (The anomalies of decade-averaged temperatures of up to +6-8° in the central and north-west ETR and up to +8-11° in Chukotka were recorded along with the new temperature maxima in Saint-Petersburg, Kaliningrad and in the Pskov, Smolensk and Ryazan Regions.) The only areas to change warmth for cold were the eastern areas of Yakutia with the temperatures below -50°, and the Magadan Region. (The anomalies of decade-averaged temperatures were about -3…-5°).