Climate of Armenia

View of the Zangezur Mountains from east of Goris, Armenia.

A view of Lake Sevan from the Sevanavank monastery

The Weather of Armenia is sometimes possible to find all the four seasons at the same time. When succulent apricots, peaches and grapes, high on the mountain slopes which surround the valley there is not enough heat even for grain to ripen, while still higher there are places covered with snow all the year round. It may be concluded on the basis of archaeological data and the information furnished by ancient Greek and Armenian historians that the climate of the Armenian Plateau has changed very little from the historical times.

The Ararat plain and the Sevan basin have the longest duration of sunshine-about 2,700 hours a year. Alexandria in Egypt does not have many more; the shortest duration of sunshine is in mid-mountain areas of the forest zone (about 2,000 hours). In the foothills there is hardly a sunless day between June and October.

Armenia's different varieties of climates depend on the absolute height of the land. They vary from the dry subtropical to the mountain tundra climate. The following six basic; types can be distinguished. Another type of climate is the dry continental type. It prevails along the middle reaches of the Arax up to an elevation of 1,300 m. It differs from the dry subtropical climate by its cold winters.

History

According to historical sources, in ancient times the winter was the same as it is today, fairly cold in the Armenian lowlands and high in the mountains. Xenophon, in his Anabasis (The Retreat of the 10,000), which describes the retreat of 10,000 Greek mercenaries through the Armenian mountains in the autumn, relates that at night, when the soldiers were asleep, snow fell in the mountains and covered the men and their weapons. He writes that the snow that fell in one night was about one meter deep. In the same work he notes that the Armenians protected themselves against the freezing frost by rubbing fat or almond oil into their bodies. Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi (5th century A. D.). He described the climate of the Ararat plain as hot and dry in the summer.

Human settlement	Height	Precipitation (mm)	Daily mean °C	Average snow depth	Minimum snow depth	Maximum snow depth	Days of snow	Humidity %
Bagratashen	453	444	11,7	—	—	—	—	72
Idjevan	732	563	10,6	10	28	1	38	73
Vanadzor	1350	586	7,4	17	38	3	72	71
Stepanavan	1397	683	6,6	19	53	4	73	73
Tashir	1507	713	5,8	17	37	2	72	75
Spitak	1552	439	7,1	12	56	2	63	69
Chambarak	1861	557	4,8	16	37	5	102	74
Meghri	627	259	13,8	5	27	0	21	61
Kapan	705	544	11,5	10	32	2	34	71
Artashat	829	235	11,1	10	44	0	39	65
Armavir	861	244	11,3	10	42	0	45	60
Erevan	942	316	11,4	12	46	0	44	60
Eghvard	1317	407	9,8	28	68	0	74	62
Areni	1009	357	11,8	14	—	—	40	56
Eghegnadzor	1267	398	10,8	18	—	—	50	66
Sisian	1580	365	6,6	12	34	3	73	68
Gumri	1556	477	5,8	26	61	4	96	70
Talin	1582	435	7,9	24	64	2	82	59
Artik	1750	516	5,8	22	51	5	95	66
Fontan	1798	640	6,0	50	79	13	124	66
Aparan	1291	651	4,3	56	92	10	125	69
Sevan	1936	556	4,0	36	83	3	136	74
Mets Mazra	1940	390	4,2	21	35	7	109	69
Martuni	1995	457	5.6	26	75	2	98	67
Yankh	2334	488	2,7	64	102	33	160	72
Pakhakn (Shurabad)	2004	574	1,8	53	81	17	138	74
Aragats (mount)	3329	1065	-2,7	166	235	66	252	73

External links

• Blizzard sweeps up Armenia, temperatures go subzero