Russia Weather and Climate

by bridgat · Published March 11, 2021 · Updated December 27, 2022

According to COUNTRYAAH, Russia is located in the eastern part of Europe and in the northern part of Asia and, with an area of 17,098,200 square kilometers, is the largest country in the world. The country extends over 9,000 kilometers from west to east and over 4,000 kilometers from north to south and is divided into eleven time zones – from UTC + 2 to UTC + 12.

The total length of the national borders is 20,017 kilometers, the coastline comprises 37,653 kilometers. The Russian Federation, together with the People’s Republic of China, has the largest number of neighboring states in the world, each with fourteen neighboring countries. Russia borders with Norway, Finland, Poland (with the exclave of Kaliningrad), Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, the People’s Republic of China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea).

After the October Revolution of 1917, Russia was the main Republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) created on December 30, 1922 and comprising the territories already subject to the Tsarist Empire. In the second half of the 1980s, the perestroika implemented by MS Gorbachev led to the dissolution of the USSR (December 25, 1991): Russia, proclaimed its sovereignty over the USSR in 1990, on March 31, 1992 it gave itself a new federal structure together with the leaders of 14 of the 16 autonomous republics and 60 other autonomous entities, thus decreeing the birth of the Russian Federation. The new Constitution, approved by referendum in December 1993, gives the president (directly elected by the people) enormous powers, only partially limited by the lower house, or Duma of State (450 members elected for 4 years by universal suffrage, half with the proportional system and half in single-member constituencies), which exercises legislative power, and by the Upper House, or Council of the Federation, whose 178 members are elected in number of 2 from each administrative unit of the country. The president is elected for four years and cannot receive more than two consecutive terms; it has its own very powerful administration, parallel to the one headed by the government, which is also nominated and revoked by it; it can appoint and dismiss practically all the highest officials of the state and it can dissolve Parliament. On June 30, 2000, the Duma approved a reform that scales back the powers of regional governors, presidents of republics and other autonomous entities, also attributing their appointment and dismissal to the head of state (instead of a popular vote) and thus further increasing the power of the center over the entire territory of the Russian Federation. The upper house was also invested in this reform, effectively losing the veto power it held over legislative decisions. The Russian judicial system is based on the classic European one, but the judiciary does not have true independence, being subject to de facto control by the president and the government. The death penalty, formally in force, has not been applied since 1996. The armed forces, after a series of cuts and reforms, count on approx. a million men, most of them assigned to the surveillance and maintenance of a gigantic network of bases and arsenals; the draft is still mandatory, but it should be replaced by voluntary recruitment which already with the reforms introduced at the end of the nineties covers the main operational needs of the defense. The public school system is fundamentally modeled on the Soviet one, as far as institutions and regulations are concerned, while the programs have changed with the introduction of new subjects and the abolition of those linked to the ideological principles of the USSR. Education is compulsory for nine years, from the seventh to the sixteenth year of age, and free; the compulsory course of study is divided into an elementary school lasting four years and a middle school lasting five years. Students who want to continue their studies attend high school for another two years and then go to university, after taking an exam. admission. From the early nineties, a process of opening up to private schools, which did not exist before, began, which in a short time led to the birth of numerous institutes and colleges of all levels. During this same period, substantial changes were also made to school curricula at all levels.

Abbreviation Finder: Check to see national geography, brief history, society description, domestic politics, economy overview, and a list of widely used acronyms about Russia.

Climate

All climates, from arctic to subtropical, are represented in Russia, one of countries with R according to COUNTRYAAH. In most parts of the country there is a temperate climate with a steady change of seasons, with long cold and snowy winters and relatively short but warm summers.

The continental character of the climate increases significantly in the north of the Far East and in Siberia, where the climate becomes extremely continental. In eastern Siberia, in the Oymyakon Valley, there is one of the “cold poles” of the northern hemisphere, where the absolute minimum temperature of -71 degrees Celsius was measured. In the western and eastern fringes of Russiathat are subject to the influence of the oceans, in turn, occur different types of climate: marine climate, transitional continental climate with signs of marine climate (in the northwest) and monsoons (in the south of the Far East). The islands and the mainland of the coasts of the Arctic Ocean have a severe arctic and sub-arctic climate. A subtropical climate with warm, humid winters and dry, short summers, on the other hand, are characteristic of the health resort zone on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus.

With the exception of the Black Sea coast, the average temperatures in January are everywhere below freezing point. Summer temperatures have major differences: while be in the far north, the average temperature in June 1 to 2 degrees Celsius, it is in Moscow 19 degrees and steppe regions of the south 25 degrees. The average amount of precipitation in the lowlands is 600 to 800 mm and increases to over 1000 mm in the northern Urals and the Far Eastern mountains.

Permafrost occurs on 47% of the country’s area. In northern Russia and in large parts of Siberia and the Far East, it makes agricultural cultivation difficult and affects the construction and maintenance of buildings and traffic systems.

Sufficiently favorable cultivation conditions are only available in the so-called agricultural triangle: It extends from the western border of Russia in a wedge shape to the east to the central Volga, the southern Urals and southern western Siberia. Natural limits are set by low temperatures in the north and low rainfall in the south.