Eurasia’s climate. Cold and temperate zones

Eurasia’s climate is more varied than that of other continents because the continent is very long both north–south and west–east. The first factor is latitude: in July the mean temperature is about +12 °C in the north and +28 °C in the south, even +32 °C in Arabia. In winter the west is mild and the north-east very cold: in Siberia the January mean falls as low as –48 °C. Oymyakon and Verkhoyansk are the Northern Hemisphere’s “poles of cold”: –67.7 °C is the official record at Oymyakon (the book’s –71 °C is an unofficial reading). The second factor is the oceans: warm moist air reaches Western Europe from the Atlantic, so rainfall is high, winters mild and summers cool. Going east the air gets drier and the climate more continental: hot summers and bitterly cold winters. In East and South Asia the summer monsoon brings very heavy rain from the Pacific and Indian oceans; in winter a high-pressure centre forms over the continent and the weather is dry and cold. In winter this cold air also reaches Uzbekistan from the north, from Siberia and Kazakhstan. The third factor is relief: west–east mountains such as the Alps, Caucasus, Tien Shan and Himalayas block cold northern winds and have altitudinal belts. The wettest places in the world are on the Meghalaya Plateau in north-east India: Mawsynram and Cherrapunji receive about 11 800 mm a year (the book gives 12 665 mm).