Geography and Climate
Pyongyang | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Climate chart (explanation) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Pyongyang is located in west-central North Korea; the city lies on a flat plain about 50 km (30 mi) east of the Korea Bay, an arm of the Yellow Sea. The Taedong River flows southwestward through the city toward the Korea Bay.
The climate of Pyongyang is a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dwa). Cold, dry winds can blow from Siberia in winter, making conditions very cold; the temperature is usually below freezing between November and early March, though the average daytime high is a few degrees above freezing in every month except January. The winter is generally much drier than summer, with snow falling for 37 days on average.
The transition from the cold, dry winter to the warm, wet summer occurs rather quickly between April and early May, and there is a similar abrupt return to winter conditions in late October and November. Summers are generally hot and humid, with the East Asian monsoon taking place from June until August; these are also the hottest months, with average temperatures of 21 °C (70 °F) to 25 °C (77 °F), and daytime highs often above 30 °C (86 °F).
Climate data for Pyongyang | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Average high °C (°F) | −0.8 (30.6) |
2.4 (36.3) |
8.9 (48.0) |
17.1 (62.8) |
22.6 (72.7) |
26.7 (80.1) |
28.6 (83.5) |
28.9 (84.0) |
24.7 (76.5) |
18.2 (64.8) |
9.4 (48.9) |
1.7 (35.1) |
15.7 (60.3) |
Average low °C (°F) | −10.7 (12.7) |
−7.8 (18.0) |
−1.8 (28.8) |
4.9 (40.8) |
10.9 (51.6) |
16.5 (61.7) |
20.7 (69.3) |
20.5 (68.9) |
14.3 (57.7) |
6.7 (44.1) |
−0.3 (31.5) |
−7.2 (19.0) |
5.6 (42.1) |
Precipitation mm (inches) | 12.2 (0.48) |
11.0 (0.433) |
24.7 (0.972) |
49.9 (1.965) |
72.2 (2.843) |
90.3 (3.555) |
275.2 (10.835) |
212.8 (8.378) |
100.2 (3.945) |
39.9 (1.571) |
34.9 (1.374) |
16.5 (0.65) |
939.8 (37) |
Avg. precipitation days | 5.2 | 4.2 | 5.1 | 6.7 | 8.1 | 8.7 | 14.4 | 11.0 | 7.2 | 6.1 | 7.3 | 5.9 | 89.9 |
Source: World Meteorological Organisation |
Read more about this topic: Pyongyang
Famous quotes containing the words geography and, geography and/or climate:
“The totality of our so-called knowledge or beliefs, from the most casual matters of geography and history to the profoundest laws of atomic physics or even of pure mathematics and logic, is a man-made fabric which impinges on experience only along the edges. Or, to change the figure, total science is like a field of force whose boundary conditions are experience.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“At present cats have more purchasing power and influence than the poor of this planet. Accidents of geography and colonial history should no longer determine who gets the fish.”
—Derek Wall (b. 1965)
“Culture is the name for what people are interested in, their thoughts, their models, the books they read and the speeches they hear, their table-talk, gossip, controversies, historical sense and scientific training, the values they appreciate, the quality of life they admire. All communities have a culture. It is the climate of their civilization.”
—Walter Lippmann (18891974)