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Tajikistan
Climate
In general, Tajikistan's climate is continental, subtropical,
and semiarid, with some desert areas. The climate changes drastically
according to elevation, however. The Fergana Valley and other
lowlands are shielded by mountains from Arctic air masses, but
temperatures in that region still drop below freezing for more
than 100 days a year. In the subtropical southwestern lowlands,
which have the highest average temperatures, the climate is arid,
although some sections now are irrigated for farming. At Tajikistan's
lower elevations, the average temperature range is 23° to
30° C in July and -1° to 3°C in January. In the eastern
Pamirs, the average July temperature is 5° to 10°C, and
the average January temperature is -15° to -20°C. The
average annual precipitation for most of the republic ranges between
700 and 1,600 millimeters. The heaviest precipitation falls are
at the Fedchenko Glacier, which averages 2,236 millimeters per
year, and the lightest in the eastern Pamirs, which average less
than 100 millimeters per year. Most precipitation occurs in the
winter and spring.
Data as of March 1996
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