Astana is the second coldest capital city in the world after Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, a position formerly held by Canada's capital, Ottawa, until Astana attained capital city status in 1998. Astana has an extreme continental climate with warm summers (featuring occasional brief rain showers) and long, very cold, dry winters. Summer temperatures occasionally reach 35 °C (95 °F) while −30 °C (−22 °F) to −35 °C (−31 °F) is not unusual between mid - December and early March. The city also holds the record for the lowest air temperature ever recorded in Kazakhstan (-51 °C). Typically, the city's river freezes over between the second week of November and the beginning of April. Astana has a well deserved reputation among Kazakhstan is for its frequent high winds, the effects of which are felt particularly strongly on the fast-developing but relatively exposed Left Bank area of the city.
Overall, Astana has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb),[12] bordering on a semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSk). The average annual temperature in Astana is 3.5 °C (38.3 °F). January is the coldest month with an average temperature of −14.2 °C (6 °F). July is the hottest month with an average temperature of 20.8 °C (69 °F).
Climate data for Astana |
|||||||||||||
Month |
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
Year |
Record high °C (°F) |
3.4 |
4.8 |
22.1 |
29.7 |
35.7 |
40.1 |
41.6 |
38.7 |
36.2 |
26.7 |
18.5 |
4.5 |
41.6 |
Average high °C (°F) |
−9.9 |
−9.2 |
−2.5 |
10.9 |
20.2 |
25.8 |
26.8 |
25.2 |
18.8 |
10.0 |
−1.4 |
−8.0 |
8.9 |
Daily mean °C (°F) |
−14.2 |
−14.1 |
−7.1 |
5.2 |
13.9 |
19.5 |
20.8 |
18.8 |
12.3 |
4.6 |
−5.4 |
−12.1 |
3.5 |
Average low °C (°F) |
−18.3 |
−18.5 |
−11.5 |
0.2 |
7.9 |
13.2 |
15.0 |
12.8 |
6.6 |
0.2 |
−8.9 |
−16.1 |
−1.5 |
Record low °C (°F) |
−51.6 |
−48.9 |
−38.0 |
−27.7 |
−10.8 |
−1.5 |
2.3 |
−2.2 |
−8.2 |
−25.3 |
−39.2 |
−43.5 |
−51.6 |
Precipitation mm (inches) |
16 |
15 |
18 |
20 |
35 |
37 |
50 |
29 |
22 |
27 |
27 |
22 |
318 |
Avg. precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) |
5.3 |
4.3 |
3.2 |
4.7 |
6.3 |
6.1 |
6.6 |
5.6 |
4.4 |
7.3 |
6.0 |
5.3 |
65.1 |
Mean monthly sunshine hours |
102.3 |
146.9 |
192.2 |
237.0 |
300.7 |
336.0 |
334.8 |
294.5 |
231.0 |
136.4 |
99.0 |
93.0 |
2,503.8 |
Source #1: Pogoda.ru.net[14] |
|||||||||||||
Source #2: Hong Kong Observatory (sun and precipitation days)[15] |