Page:Impact of Climate Change in 2030 Russia (2009).pdf/11

 == Introduction and Background == ==== Current Climatology of Russia ====

Russia has the largest amount of land area of any country in the world. Most of this area is more than 400 kilometers from the sea, with the center of the country being almost 4,000 kilometers from the sea. The terrain ranges from grassy steppes in the south to frigid tundra in the polar north. The treeless, marshy tundra comprises almost 10 percent of the country. Russia’s topography includes the world’s deepest lake and Europe’s highest mountain, and its landscape contains all the major vegetation zones of the world except a tropical rain forest. More than half of the country is above 60° north latitude and is covered with snow for almost half of the year.

Less than one percent of Russia’s population lives in the northernmost part of the country, from the Finnish border to the Bering Strait. This area, shaped by glaciation in the last ice age, continues to be subject to erosion by frost weathering. Rivers here flow north to the Arctic Ocean, often hampering drainage of lakes and ponds across the tundra. Summer nights, called “white” nights, are so short that dawn comes shortly after dusk. Vegetation above the permafrost consists mostly of mosses, lichen, and dwarf trees and shrubs.

Russia’s large forested region, called the taiga, comprises an area about the size of the United States and contains primarily coniferous trees such as spruce, cedar, larch, and fir. The region includes most of European Russia, and about one-third of Russia’s people live there. The annual average temperature of this region is below freezing; the northern part of this region is one of the coldest inhabited areas on Earth.

The steppes, often imaged as typical Russian landscape, are treeless, grassy plains occasionally interrupted by mountain ranges. Located from south of Moscow to the Black and Caspian seas, this is the only region that has a relatively temperate climate and is suited to agriculture. However, the region occasionally experiences catastrophic droughts and short, intense periods of precipitation. At the southernmost part of the region, a narrow subtropical climate warms the edges of the Black Sea and provides Russia’s only warm resort area.

Most of Russia receives little precipitation. In the south and east, mountain ranges prevent Indian and Pacific Ocean winds from bringing precipitation and warmer temperatures inland. The highest levels of precipitation are in the northwest region of the country, with levels decreasing toward southeast and European Russia. The wettest areas are along the Pacific coast and near the Caucasus. A monsoonal climate along Russia’s Pacific coast brings seasonally high amounts of precipitation, reversing the direction of winds in summer and winter.

In winter, steady winds tend to blow from the south and southwest across most of the country. In summer, winds come from the north and northwest. This reversal of the winds causes less temperature variation than might be expected between winter and summer. For January, the average temperatures are -8 degrees Celsius (°C) in St. Petersburg, -27°C in the West Siberian Plain, and -43°C at Yakutsk (east-central Siberia, at about the same latitude as St. Petersburg). In the summer, the Arctic islands average 4°C, and the southernmost regions of Russia average 20°C.