Geography
The krai lies in the middle of Siberia, and belongs to the Siberian Federal District, stretching 3,000 km from the Sayan Mountains in the south along the Yenisei River to the Taymyr Peninsula in the north. It borders Tyumen, Tomsk, Irkutsk, and Kemerovo Oblasts, the Republic of Khakassia, the Tuva Republic, and the Sakha Republic, and the Kara Sea and Laptev Sea of the Arctic Ocean in the north.
The krai is located in the basin of the Arctic Ocean; a great number of rivers that flow through the krai all drain into it eventually. The main rivers of the krai are the Yenisei, and its tributaries (from south to north): the Kan, the Angara, the Podkamennaya Tunguska, and the Nizhnyaya Tunguska.
There are also several thousand lakes in the krai. The largest lakes include Beloye, Belyo, Glubokoye, Itat, Khantayskoye, Labas, Lama, Pyasina, Taymyr, and Yessey. The rivers and lakes are rich with fish.
The climate is strongly continental with large temperature variations during the year. For the central and southern regions where most of the krai's population lives, long winters and short, hot summers are characteristic. The territory of Krasnoyarsk krai experiences conditions of three climate belts: Arctic, Subarctic, and moderate. While in the north there are less than 40 days with temperature higher than 10 °C (50 °F), in the south there are 110–120 such days.
The average temperature in January is −36 °C (−33 °F) in the north and −18 °C (−0 °F) in the south. The average temperature in July is +10 °C (50 °F) in the north and +20 °C (68 °F) in the south. The annual precipitation is 316 millimeters (12.4 in) (up to 1,200 millimeters (47 in) in foothills of the Sayan Mountains). Snow covers the central regions of the krai from early November until late March. The peaks of the Sayans higher than 2,400–2,600 m and those of the Putorana Plateau higher than 1,000–1,300 m are covered with permanent snow. Permafrost is widespread, especially in the north.
The highest point of the krai is Grandiozny Peak in the East Sayan Mountains at an elevation of 2,922 meters (9,587 ft).
Read more about this topic: Krasnoyarsk Krai
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