The winter of 2012/2013 (December to February) as well as March 2013 were too cold in large parts of the northern half of Asia in comparison to the reference period 1961-1990. In December 2012, monthly temperature anomalies up to about -11 °C were recorded in the southwest of Siberia and in Kazakhstan. In Kazakhstan, daily minimum temperatures reached -40 to -46 °C. According to media, nearly 250 000 people in Russia were temporarily without water, heating and power due to frozen and burst pipes as a result of the cold. Sev-eral hundreds of people with frostbite were hospitalised. Just as in Russia, the people in Ka-zakhstan – mainly in northern, eastern and central parts – suffered from power outages and the breakdown of hot-water supply.
Temperature anomalies of winter 2012/2013
In the northern half of Asia, the winter of 2012/2013 (December to February) was widespread too cold (Fig. 2). Some regions recorded winter temperatures up to 4 °C below average. Be-sides parts of Siberia, also north-eastern Mongolia and north-eastern China were affected.
The high temperature anomalies primarily resulted from the abnormally cold December (Fig. 3a). January was colder than usual by only up to 2 °C in large areas (Fig. 3b), while in Feb-ruary eastern Siberia recorded the highest anomalies with values up to -8 °C (Fig. 3c).
December 2012 temperatures were far below the average of the reference period 1961-1990 mainly in south-western Siberia and large parts of Kazakhstan, regionally by about 11 °C (Fig. 3a).
Figure 4 shows a detailed map of the temperature anomalies of December 2012 for the Rus-sian Federation, published in a report by the Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Russian weather service).
Weather conditions of December 2012 across northern Asia
[HIGHLIGHT]The coldness of December was connected with strong high pressure systems, reaching core pressures of partly more than 1055 hPa.[/HIGHLIGHT] Under the influence of high pressure, the cloudiness was low and the cooling at night across snow-covered areas was strong. Partly, polar air was directed to the southwest of Siberia and to Kazakhstan with northerly to north-easterly winds being caused by high pressure centred in the area of the Ural Mountains.
The Asian cold high-pressure system was displaced northwards in December 2012, regard-ing the monthly mean pressure with respect to the 1961-1990 average. The centre of that high, now being located in the area of Kazakhstan / south-western Siberia, had values be-tween 1035 and 1040 hPa, which exceeded the long-term average by about 4 to 12 hPa (Fig. 5).
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