Weather of Mongolia: climate of central Asia

More than 100,000 visitors since 2005

Mongolia has a very bright climate. Mongolia is also called the country of blue sky because, on average, Mongolia receives more than eight hours sun every day. Far from the influence of oceans, blocs of intense high pressure build up over the country, particularly in winter. They rid the atmosphere of all moisture and leave a blue so thick that if you fired an arrow up into it, you get the sense that it might just stick there. The flags that fly at the roadside ovoos are blue. Herds are protected by a chosen animal with a blue tag tied around its neck. Khatags are the blue scarves sold at monasteries, presented to the various representations of the Buddha or used for more earthly purposes, draped over the tops of televisions in Ulan Baatar's appartments or stuffed for protection inside the windscreen of cars (it is the few metalled roads around the capital that are most dangerous and as they are increasing so are the fatalities).

But all is not well in the Blue Eternal Sky. The weather in Mongolia is changing. The rains in summer are lighter. Spring is unpredictable. The permafrost is shrinking. Storms - dust-storms, snow-storms - have become much fiercer and more frequent.

In the great simmering pot of the world's weather, Mongolia and its herders can be seen as something of an indicator. For a start, few peoples manage to live in such extreme conditions. Mongolia's weather falls into the bracket of "harsh continental" and even in Ulaanbaatar, the world's coldest capital, the temperature can drop to -45C in winter. There are places in the country, and not just in the Gobi desert, where you can experience a temperature range of 37C in a single day. Winds race across the steppe like an invading horde, cruel and sudden and full of face-lashing grit. They are either very cold or very hot or very dry. Mild is never a term applicable to Mongolia's weather.