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Rus: How Climate Impacts Rus Culture

© Dr. Donald R. Houston

Only small portions of the Rus countries are south of the 50th. parallel & more than half of the Rus countries are north of 60th. parallel. Vast regions experience 6+ months of snow cover over a subsoil that is permafrost as deep as 300-400 meters. The average yearly temperature of nearly all of European Russia is below freezing. The average for most of Siberia is also below freezing as well. Most of Russia only has two seasons, Summer & Winter. There only very short intervals of distinction between them.

Transportation routing, including entire railroad lines, are redirected in winter to traverse rock-solid waterways & lakes as was done to defeat the Axis in WW-II. There are areas of important exception to this description. One such is the moderate maritime climate of Kallinigrad Oblast on the Baltic Sea. The climate there is similar to that of the American Northwest such as Seattle or Portland. In Siberia, also called the Russian Far East, there is the influence of the Pacific Ocean currents, causing a type of monsoonal climate that reverses the direction of the prevailing winds in Summer & Winter, produces vastly differentiating temperatures. The narrow, subtropical band of territory provides warmer weather & a more hospitable climate mostly in the Crimea of Ukraine, the Rus's most popular summer resort area on the Black Sea has a very temperate climate. So temperate in fact that citrus fruit is grown there.

The Winter intense high-pressure systems cause winds to blow from the S & SW in all but the Pacific Region Siberian Kamchatka also called the Primorskoye Region. In the Summer low-pressure systems cause the prevailing winds to come out of the N & NW to most of the Rus landmass. It is this meteorological phenomenon that produces the Wintertime temperature variances between N & S. This may seen by the average January temperatures of -8̊ to -12̊C in St. Petersburg & Moscow, -25 to -35̊C on the Siberian Plain, and -40 to -55̊C at Yakutsk located in east-central Siberia at approximately the same latitude as St. Petersburg. The Winter average temperature on the Mongolian border at a latitude is some 10̊ farther South is no warmer. The Summer temperatures are more affected by latitude. The Arctic islands average 4̊ to 8̊C while the most Southern regions average 20̊ to 27̊ C. The Rus's potential for vast extremes is seen by the national record low of -94̊C, recorded at Verkhoyansk in north-central Siberia & a record high of 38̊C, recorded at several Southern locations along the Black Sea coast.

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