Climate Armenia
Crossed by the 40th parallel, which places it at the latitude of Madrid or Naples, Armenia is a southern country, which owes its harsher climate to its extremely mountainous but nevertheless contrasting relief, which explains a certain climatic diversity, despite the country's modest size. Surrounded on all sides by very high mountains, Armenia cannot rely on maritime influence to soften its resolutely continental climate, but the high barrier of the Caucasus, with peaks of over 5 000 metres in the north, protects it from the cold winds blowing from Siberia. Preceded by a short spring, softened by frequent floods, the summer is generally dry and torrid, while the autumn is short, dry and bright, ensuring the short transition to the winter of a sometimes polar cold, marked by heavy snowfall that sometimes makes certain roads impassable.
A continental climate
Beyond the local peculiarities and other microclimates, the Armenian climate obeys a constant: it is dry and continental, alternating hot, even torrid summers, with peaks of 40°C in Yerevan, in the Ararat plain, or in the extreme south, towards Meghri, on the border with Iran, and even at an altitude of 1,900 m, in the basin of Lake Sevan, which is suitable for swimming, and a cold, even icy winter on the high plateaus with abundant snowfall from November to April, with peaks of -40°C in January in the Chirak plain, at an altitude of almost 2,000 metres, earning it its nickname of Armenian Siberia. In this resolutely continental and mountainous context, spring and autumn are more like off-seasons, ensuring the transition to the two great climatic moments of the year, even if they reveal other aspects of the country, greener and milder in spring, drier and more colourful in autumn. Spring, which is fairly short but whose duration varies according to the mountainous topography, is milder in the northeast, where the lower, wooded mountains favour humidity. It is the rainy season, never very abundant, but which gives all their power and beauty to the waterfalls and torrents, such as the one at Chaki, in the Sissian region, in the south, or at Trchkan, in the north, near Spitak, gorged by the melting snow, very present at that time on the summits and on the mountainsides. Temperatures are mild, but remain cool on the heights, until June, when the thermometer starts to rise very quickly in the Ararat plain, announcing summer. Autumn, also short, is generally mild and dry and casts a veil of colour over the forests. A kind of Indian summer that ends in mid-October with the sudden arrival of winter and snow, which covers almost the whole country except for the lowest plains.
A logic of seasons disturbed by the altitude
The relatively high altitude, which should be combined here with the southern latitude, very often disturbs the logic of the seasons: one will thus be confronted with a quasi winter climate in the very heart of summer in the area of the high plateaus and summits, where there are still snows, above 3 400 m. In other words, even in summer, you should consider taking warm clothing with you, along with bathing clothes and sunglasses. Another constant in the Armenian climate is the sunshine, estimated at 2,500 hours per year (2,700 hours in the Ararat plain and the Sevan basin, where one must protect oneself against the powerful UV rays). The skies are less rainy, with the regions on the summits, which have the most snow, receiving the most rain. Armenia is not spared by global warming. In recent years, there have been more intense episodes of rain or even hail in spring and even hotter, drier summers, sometimes with forest fires, with winter coming later in the mountains, where positive temperatures can be observed until the end of November.
