December Weather in Stepnyak KazakhstanDaily high temperatures decrease by 7°F, from 16°F to 9°F, rarely falling below -7°F or exceeding 28°F. Daily low temperatures decrease by 8°F, from 4°F to -4°F, rarely falling below -21°F or exceeding 18°F. For reference, on July 1, the hottest day of the year, temperatures in Stepnyak typically range from 57°F to 79°F, while on January 16, the coldest day of the year, they range from -6°F to 8°F. The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average temperatures for the quarter of the year centered on December. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day. Nipawin, Canada (5,098 miles away) and Red Lake, Canada (5,211 miles) are the far-away foreign places with temperatures most similar to Stepnyak (view comparison). CloudsThe month of December in Stepnyak experiences gradually increasing cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy increasing from 73% to 79%. The clearest day of the month is December 1, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 27% of the time. For reference, on January 2, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 79%, while on July 30, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 64%. PrecipitationA wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. In Stepnyak, the chance of a wet day over the course of December is essentially constant, remaining around 8% throughout. For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 25% on July 8, and its lowest chance is 4% on February 19. SnowfallAs with rainfall, we consider the snowfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day. The average sliding 31-day snowfall during December in Stepnyak is decreasing, starting the month at 3.4 inches, when it rarely exceeds 7.3 inches or falls below 0.3 inches, and ending the month at 2.4 inches, when it rarely exceeds 5.6 inches or falls below 0.2 inches. SunOver the course of December in Stepnyak, the length of the day is gradually decreasing. From the start to the end of the month, the length of the day decreases by 17 minutes, implying an average daily decrease of 33 seconds, and weekly decrease of 3 minutes, 54 seconds. The shortest day of the month is December 21, with 7 hours, 36 minutes of daylight and the longest day is December 1, with 7 hours, 58 minutes of daylight. The earliest sunrise of the month in Stepnyak is 9:06 AM on December 1 and the latest sunrise is 23 minutes later at 9:29 AM on December 30. The earliest sunset is 5:00 PM on December 13 and the latest sunset is 10 minutes later at 5:10 PM on December 31. Daylight saving time is not observed in Stepnyak during 2024. For reference, on June 20, the longest day of the year, the Sun rises at 4:51 AM and sets 16 hours, 54 minutes later, at 9:45 PM, while on December 21, the shortest day of the year, it rises at 9:27 AM and sets 7 hours, 36 minutes later, at 5:02 PM. The figure below presents a compact representation of the sun's elevation (the angle of the sun above the horizon) and azimuth (its compass bearing) for every hour of every day in the reporting period. The horizontal axis is the day of the year and the vertical axis is the hour of the day. For a given day and hour of that day, the background color indicates the azimuth of the sun at that moment. The black isolines are contours of constant solar elevation. MoonThe figure below presents a compact representation of key lunar data for December 2024. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the colored areas indicate when the moon is above the horizon. The vertical gray bars (new Moons) and blue bars (full Moons) indicate key Moon phases. The label associated with each bar indicates the date and time that the phase is obtained, and the companion time labels indicate the rise and set times of the Moon for the nearest time interval in which the moon is above the horizon.
HumidityWe base the humidity comfort level on the dew point, as it determines whether perspiration will evaporate from the skin, thereby cooling the body. Lower dew points feel drier and higher dew points feel more humid. Unlike temperature, which typically varies significantly between night and day, dew point tends to change more slowly, so while the temperature may drop at night, a muggy day is typically followed by a muggy night. The chance that a given day will be muggy in Stepnyak is essentially constant during December, remaining around 0% throughout. For reference, on June 29, the muggiest day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time, while on January 1, the least muggy day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time. WindThis section discusses the wide-area hourly average wind vector (speed and direction) at 10 meters above the ground. The wind experienced at any given location is highly dependent on local topography and other factors, and instantaneous wind speed and direction vary more widely than hourly averages. The average hourly wind speed in Stepnyak is gradually increasing during December, increasing from 13.2 miles per hour to 13.7 miles per hour over the course of the month. For reference, on December 15, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 13.9 miles per hour, while on July 31, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 8.8 miles per hour. The highest daily average wind speed during December is 13.9 miles per hour on December 15. The hourly average wind direction in Stepnyak throughout December is predominantly from the west, with a peak proportion of 53% on December 4. Growing SeasonDefinitions of the growing season vary throughout the world, but for the purposes of this report, we define it as the longest continuous period of non-freezing temperatures (≥ 32°F) in the year (the calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere, or from July 1 until June 30 in the Southern Hemisphere). The growing season in Stepnyak typically lasts for 4.3 months (132 days), from around May 14 to around September 23, rarely starting before April 26 or after June 2, and rarely ending before September 7 or after October 10. The month of December in Stepnyak is reliably fully outside of the growing season. Growing degree days are a measure of yearly heat accumulation used to predict plant and animal development, and defined as the integral of warmth above a base temperature, discarding any excess above a maximum temperature. In this report, we use a base of 50°F and a cap of 86°F. The average accumulated growing degree days in Stepnyak are essentially constant during December, remaining around 1,946°F throughout. Solar EnergyThis section discusses the total daily incident shortwave solar energy reaching the surface of the ground over a wide area, taking full account of seasonal variations in the length of the day, the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, and absorption by clouds and other atmospheric constituents. Shortwave radiation includes visible light and ultraviolet radiation. The average daily incident shortwave solar energy in Stepnyak is essentially constant during December, remaining within 0.1 kWh of 0.8 kWh throughout. The lowest average daily incident shortwave solar energy during December is 0.7 kWh on December 23. TopographyFor the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Stepnyak are 52.835 deg latitude, 70.789 deg longitude, and 1,201 ft elevation. The topography within 2 miles of Stepnyak contains only modest variations in elevation, with a maximum elevation change of 194 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 1,143 feet. Within 10 miles contains only modest variations in elevation (564 feet). Within 50 miles contains significant variations in elevation (2,493 feet). The area within 2 miles of Stepnyak is covered by cropland (40%), grassland (22%), trees (17%), and shrubs (17%), within 10 miles by cropland (46%) and trees (19%), and within 50 miles by cropland (46%) and trees (20%). Data SourcesThis report illustrates the typical weather in Stepnyak, based on a statistical analysis of historical hourly weather reports and model reconstructions from January 1, 1980 to December 31, 2016. Stepnyak is further than 200 kilometers from the nearest reliable weather station, so the weather-related data on this page were taken entirely from NASA's MERRA-2 satellite-era reanalysis . This reanalysis combines a variety of wide-area measurements in a state-of-the-art global meteorological model to reconstruct the hourly history of weather throughout the world on a 50-kilometer grid. The temperature and dew point estimates are corrected for the difference between the reference elevation of the MERRA-2 grid cell and the elevation of Stepnyak, according to the International Standard Atmosphere . All data relating to the Sun's position (e.g., sunrise and sunset) are computed using astronomical formulas from the book, Astronomical Algorithms 2nd Edition , by Jean Meeus. Land Use data comes from the Global Land Cover SHARE database , published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Elevation data comes from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) , published by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Names, locations, and time zones of places and some airports come from the GeoNames Geographical Database . Time zones for airports and weather stations are provided by AskGeo.com . Maps are © OpenStreetMap contributors. DisclaimerThe information on this site is provided as is, without any assurances as to its accuracy or suitability for any purpose. Weather data is prone to errors, outages, and other defects. We assume no responsibility for any decisions made on the basis of the content presented on this site. We draw particular cautious attention to our reliance on the MERRA-2 model-based reconstructions for a number of important data series. While having the tremendous advantages of temporal and spatial completeness, these reconstructions: (1) are based on computer models that may have model-based errors, (2) are coarsely sampled on a 50 km grid and are therefore unable to reconstruct the local variations of many microclimates, and (3) have particular difficulty with the weather in some coastal areas, especially small islands. 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