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Siberian high


The Siberian High (also Siberian Anticyclone) is a massive collection of cold dry air that accumulates in the northeastern part of Eurasia from September until April. It is usually centered on Lake Baikal. It reaches its greatest size and strength in the winter when the air temperature near the center of the high-pressure cell is often lower than −40 °C (−40 °F). The atmospheric pressure is often above 1,040 millibars (31 inHg). The Siberian High is the strongest semi-permanent high in the northern hemisphere and is responsible for both the lowest temperature in the Northern Hemisphere, of −67.8 °C (−90.0 °F) on 15 January 1885 at Verkhoyansk, and the highest pressure, 1083.8 mbar (108.38 kPa, 32.01 inHg) at Agata, Krasnoyarsk Krai on 31 December 1968, ever recorded. The Siberian High is responsible both for severe winter cold and attendant dry conditions with little snow and few or no glaciers across Siberia, Mongolia and China. During the summer, the Siberian High is largely replaced by the Asiatic low.

The Siberian High affects the weather patterns in most parts of the Northern Hemisphere: its influence extends as far west as Italy and as far southeast as Malaysia, where it is a critical component of the northeast monsoon. Occasionally a strong Siberian High can bring unusually cold weather into the tropics as far southeast as the Philippines, or as far east from Russia as Eastern Canada. This happened several times over the course of the 2014 Winter. It may block or reduce the size of low-pressure cells and generate dry weather across much of the Asian landscape with the exception of regions such as Hokuriku and the Caspian Sea coast of Iran that receive orographic rainfall from the winds it generates. As a result of the Siberian High, coastal winters in the main city of Pacific Russia Vladivostok are very cold in relation to its latitude and proximity to the ocean.


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