Climate
In general, Tajikistan's climate is continental, subtropical, and semiarid, with some desert areas. The climate changes drastically according to elevation, however. The Fergana Valley and other lowlands are shielded by mountains from Arctic air masses, but temperatures in that region still drop below freezing for more than 100 days a year. In the subtropical southwestern lowlands, which have the highest average temperatures, the climate is arid, although some sections now are irrigated for farming. At Tajikistan's lower elevations, the average temperature range is 23 to 30 °C (73.4 to 86 °F) in July and -1 to 3 °C (30.2 to 37.4 °F) in January. In the eastern Pamirs, the average July temperature is 5 to 10 °C (41 to 50 °F), and the average January temperature is -15 to -20 °C (5 to -4 °F).
Tajikistan is the wettest of the Central Asian republics, with the average annual precipitation for the Kafiristan and Vakhsh valleys in the south being around 500 to 600 mm (19.7 to 23.6 in), and up to 150 mm (5.9 in) in the mountains. At the Fedchenko Glacier, as much as 223.6 cm (88.0 in) of snow falls each year. Only in the northern Fergana Valley and in the rain shadow areas of the eastern Pamirs is precipitation as low as in other parts of Central Asia: in the eastern Pamirs less than 100 mm (3.94 in) falls per year. Most precipitation occurs in the winter and spring.
Read more about this topic: Geography Of Tajikistan
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