Winter Weather at Khatanga Airport Russia

Daily high temperatures are around -15°F, rarely falling below -41°F or exceeding 11°F. The lowest daily average high temperature is -18°F on January 9.

Daily low temperatures decrease by 5°F, from -24°F to -29°F, rarely falling below -51°F or exceeding -3°F. The lowest daily average low temperature is -32°F on January 11.

For reference, on July 20, the hottest day of the year, temperatures at Khatanga Airport typically range from 48°F to 61°F, while on January 10, the coldest day of the year, they range from -32°F to -18°F.

The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average winter temperatures. 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.

Thompson, Canada (3,561 miles away); Fermont, Canada (3,806 miles); and McMurdo Station, Antarctica (10,674 miles) are the far-away foreign places with temperatures most similar to Khatanga Airport (view comparison).

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The winter at Khatanga Airport experiences essentially constant cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy remaining about 74% throughout the season. The lowest chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 70% on January 2.

The clearest day of the winter is January 2, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 30% of the time.

For reference, on October 21, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 83%, while on July 13, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 45%.

A wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. At Khatanga Airport, the chance of a wet day over the course of the winter is essentially constant, remaining around 4% throughout.

For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 29% on June 29, and its lowest chance is 2% on February 11.

Snowfall

As with rainfall, we consider the snowfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day.

The average sliding 31-day snowfall during the winter at Khatanga Airport is gradually decreasing, starting the season at 2.1 inches, when it rarely exceeds 6.5 inches, and ending the season at 1.3 inches, when it rarely exceeds 4.6 inches or falls below -0.0 inches.

The lowest average 31-day accumulation is 1.1 inches on February 10.

Due to its extreme latitude, Khatanga Airport experiences polar day (also known as the midnight Sun) during the summer and polar night during the winter. These are periods of time in which the sun is continuously above or below the horizon for more than one day. The precise start and end dates of polar day and night vary from year to year and depend on the precise location and elevation of the observer, and the local topography.

In the winter at Khatanga Airport during 2024, the Sun is continuously below the horizon for 2.3 months, setting at 11:55 AM on November 16, and not rising again until 12:16 PM on January 26. As such, winter begins in polar night, which ends before winter is over.

The longest day of the winter is February 28, with 9 hours, 3 minutes of daylight.

The latest sunrise of the winter at Khatanga Airport is 11:47 AM on January 26 and the earliest sunrise is 3 hours, 55 minutes earlier at 7:52 AM on February 28.

The earliest sunset is 12:58 PM on January 26 and the latest sunset is 3 hours, 56 minutes later at 4:54 PM on February 28.

Daylight saving time is not observed at Khatanga Airport during 2024.

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.

The figure below presents a compact representation of key lunar data for the winter of 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.

We 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 at Khatanga Airport is essentially constant during the winter, remaining around 0% throughout.

For reference, on July 16, 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.

This 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 at Khatanga Airport is gradually decreasing during the winter, decreasing from 10.5 miles per hour to 9.9 miles per hour over the course of the season.

For reference, on April 13, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 11.5 miles per hour, while on August 30, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 9.3 miles per hour.

The lowest daily average wind speed during the winter is 9.6 miles per hour on February 20.

The hourly average wind direction at Khatanga Airport throughout the winter is predominantly from the south, with a peak proportion of 51% on January 5.

Definitions 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 at Khatanga Airport typically lasts for 2.8 months (86 days), from around June 8 to around September 2, rarely starting before May 24 or after June 23, and rarely ending before August 18 or after September 16.

The winter at Khatanga Airport 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 at Khatanga Airport are decreasing during the winter, decreasing by 375°F, from 375°F to 0°F, over the course of the season.

This 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 at Khatanga Airport is gradually increasing during the winter, rising by 0.6 kWh, from -0.0 kWh to 0.6 kWh, over the course of the season.

The lowest average daily incident shortwave solar energy during the winter is -0.0 kWh on December 16.

For the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Khatanga Airport are 71.978 deg latitude, 102.491 deg longitude, and 82 ft elevation.

The topography within 2 miles of Khatanga Airport contains only modest variations in elevation, with a maximum elevation change of 131 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 51 feet. Within 10 miles also contains only modest variations in elevation (177 feet). Within 50 miles contains only modest variations in elevation (1,532 feet).

The area within 2 miles of Khatanga Airport is covered by grassland (38%), water (35%), bare soil (13%), and shrubs (12%), within 10 miles by grassland (62%) and shrubs (22%), and within 50 miles by grassland (78%) and shrubs (11%).