Editing Siberia (section)

===Climate===
{{main|Climate of Russia}}
[[File:Kuysumy mountains and Torgashinsky range. View from viewing platform on Kashtakovskaya path (Stolby reserve, Krasnoyarsk city) 4Y1A8757 (28363120875).jpg |thumb|Siberian [[taiga]]]]

[[File:Russia vegetation.png|thumb|533px|{{legend0|#c0c0c0|[[polar desert]]}} {{legend0|#9fd6c9|[[tundra]]}} {{legend0|#a7bddb|[[alpine tundra]]}} {{legend0|#006d64|[[taiga]]}} {{legend0|#3c9798|[[montane forest]]}} {{legend0|#a4e05d|[[temperate broadleaf forest]]}} {{legend0|#f7ec6f|[[temperate steppe]]}} {{legend0|#9b8447|[[dry steppe]]}}<br />[[Biome|Vegetation]] in Siberia mostly consists of [[taiga]], with a [[tundra]] belt on the northern fringe, and a [[Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest|temperate forest]] zone in the south.]]

The climate of Siberia varies dramatically, but it typically has warm but short summers and long, brutally cold winters. On the north coast, north of the [[Arctic Circle]], there is a very short (about one month long) summer.

Almost all the population lives in the south, along the route of the [[Trans-Siberian Railway]]. The climate in this southernmost part is [[humid continental climate]] (Köppen ''Dfa/Dfb'' or ''Dwa/Dwb'') with cold winters but fairly warm summers lasting at least four months. The annual average temperature is about {{convert|0.5|C|F|1}}. January averages about {{convert|−20|C}} and July about {{convert|+19|C}}, while daytime temperatures in summer typically exceed {{Convert|20|C}}.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.worldclimate.com/cgi-bin/data.pl?ref=N55E082+1102+29634W |title= Novosibirsk climate |publisher= Worldclimate.com |date= 4 February 2007 |access-date= 15 May 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.worldclimate.com/cgi-bin/data.pl?ref=N54E073+1202+0004115G2 |title= Omsk climate |publisher= Worldclimate.com |date= 4 February 2007 |access-date= 15 May 2010}}</ref> With a reliable growing season, an abundance of sunshine and exceedingly fertile [[chernozem]] soils, southern Siberia is good enough for profitable [[agriculture]], as was demonstrated in the early 20th century.

By far the most commonly occurring climate in Siberia is continental [[subarctic climate|subarctic]] (Koppen ''Dfc'', ''Dwc'', or ''Dsc''), with the annual average temperature about {{convert|−5|°C|°F}} and an average for January of {{convert|−25|C}} and an average for July of {{convert|+17|C}},<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.worldclimate.com/cgi-bin/data.pl?ref=N56E107+1102+30337W |title= Kazachengoye climate |publisher= Worldclimate.com |date= 4 February 2007 |access-date= 15 May 2010}}</ref> although this varies considerably, with a July average about {{Convert|10|C}} in the taiga–tundra [[ecotone]]. The [[commerce|business]]-oriented website and blog ''Business Insider'' lists [[Verkhoyansk]] and [[Oymyakon]], in Siberia's [[Sakha Republic]], as being in competition for the title of the Northern Hemisphere's ''[[Pole of Cold]]''. [[Oymyakon]] is a village which recorded a temperature of {{convert|−67.7|°C|F}} on 6 February 1933. [[Verkhoyansk]], a town further north and further inland, recorded a temperature of {{convert|−69.8|°C|F}} for three consecutive nights: 5, 6 and 7 February 1933. Each town is alternately considered the Northern Hemisphere's Pole of Cold – the coldest inhabited point in the Northern hemisphere. Each town also frequently reaches {{convert|30|C}} in the summer, giving them, and much of the rest of Russian Siberia, the world's greatest temperature variation between summer's highs and winter's lows, often well over {{Convert|94|-|100|C-change|disp=preunit|6=+}} between the seasons.<ref>{{cite web |work=Business Insider |date=6 February 2014 |title=This Tiny Town In Russia Is The Most Miserable Place In The World |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/verkhoyansk-russia-most-miserable-place-2014-2 |last=Badkar |first=Mamta |access-date=28 August 2021 }}</ref>{{failed verification|date= December 2016}}

Southwesterly winds bring warm air from Central Asia and the Middle East. The climate in West Siberia (Omsk, or Novosibirsk) is several degrees warmer than in the East ([[Irkutsk]], or [[Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai|Chita]]) where in the north an extreme winter subarctic climate (Köppen ''Dfd'', ''Dwd'', or ''Dsd'') prevails. But summer temperatures in other regions can reach {{convert|+38|C}}. In general, [[Sakha Republic|Sakha]] is the coldest Siberian region, and the basin of the [[Yana (river)|Yana]] has the lowest temperatures of all, with permafrost reaching {{convert|1493|m|ft}}. Nevertheless, Imperial Russian plans of settlement never viewed cold as an impediment. In the winter, southern Siberia sits near the center of the semi-permanent [[Siberian High]], so winds are usually light in the winter.

[[Precipitation (meteorology)|Precipitation]] in Siberia is generally low, exceeding {{convert|500|mm}} only in [[Kamchatka Peninsula|Kamchatka]], where moist winds flow from the [[Sea of Okhotsk]] onto high mountains&nbsp;– producing the region's only major [[glacier]]s, though volcanic eruptions and low summer temperatures allow only limited forests to grow. Precipitation is high also in most of [[Primorsky Krai|Primorye]] in the extreme south, where monsoonal influences can produce quite heavy summer rainfall.

{{Weather box
| location=[[Novosibirsk]], Siberia's largest city
| metric first=yes
| single line=yes
| Jan high C = −12.2
| Feb high C = −10.3
| Mar high C = −2.6
| Apr high C = 8.1
| May high C = 17.5
| Jun high C = 24.0
| Jul high C = 25.7
| Aug high C = 22.2
| Sep high C = 16.6
| Oct high C = 6.8
| Nov high C = −2.9
| Dec high C = −8.9
| year high C = 7.0
| Jan mean C = −16.2
| Feb mean C = −14.7
| Mar mean C = −7.2
| Apr mean C = 3.2
| May mean C = 11.6
| Jun mean C = 18.2
| Jul mean C = 20.2
| Aug mean C = 17.0
| Sep mean C = 11.5
| Oct mean C = 3.4
| Nov mean C = −6.0
| Dec mean C = −12.7
| year mean C = 2.4
| Jan low C = −20.1
| Feb low C = −19.1
| Mar low C = −11.8
| Apr low C = −1.7
| May low C = 5.6
| Jun low C = 12.3
| Jul low C = 14.7
| Aug low C = 11.7
| Sep low C = 6.4
| Oct low C = 0.0
| Nov low C = −9.1
| Dec low C = −16.4
| year low C = −2.3
| precipitation colour=green
| Jan precipitation mm = 19
| Feb precipitation mm = 14
| Mar precipitation mm = 15
| Apr precipitation mm = 24
| May precipitation mm = 36
| Jun precipitation mm = 58
| Jul precipitation mm = 72
| Aug precipitation mm = 66
| Sep precipitation mm = 44
| Oct precipitation mm = 38
| Nov precipitation mm = 32
| Dec precipitation mm = 24
| year precipitation mm = 442
| source 1 =<ref name="Гидрометцентр России">{{cite web |url=http://meteoinfo.ru/NovosibirskClimat |script-title=ru:Гидрометцентр России |access-date=8 January 2009 |language=ru |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080627063054/http://meteoinfo.ru/NovosibirskClimat |archive-date=27 June 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
| date=August 2010
}}

====Global warming====
Researchers, including Sergei Kirpotin at [[Tomsk State University]] and Judith Marquand at [[Oxford University]], warn that [[West Siberian Plain|Western Siberia]] has begun to thaw as a result of [[global warming]]. The frozen [[peat bog]]s in this region may hold billions of tons of [[methane gas]], which may be released into the atmosphere. Methane is a [[greenhouse gas]] [[Global warming potential|22 times more powerful]] than [[carbon dioxide]].<ref>Ian Sample, "[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/aug/11/science.climatechange1 Warming hits 'tipping point']". ''[[The Guardian]]'', 11 August 2005.</ref> In 2008 a research expedition for the [[American Geophysical Union]] detected levels of methane up to 100 times above normal in the atmosphere above the Siberian [[Arctic]], likely the result of [[methane clathrate]]s being released through holes in a frozen "lid" of seabed [[permafrost]] around the outfall of the [[Lena (river)|Lena]] and the area between the [[Laptev Sea]] and [[East Siberian Sea]].<ref>{{cite news | url= https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exclusive-the-methane-time-bomb-938932.html | title= Exclusive: The methane time bomb |last= Connor |first= Steve |date= 23 September 2008 |newspaper= [[The Independent]] |access-date= 3 October 2008}}</ref><ref>N. Shakhova, I. Semiletov, A. Salyuk, D. Kosmach, and N. Bel'cheva (2007), [http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/EGU2007/01071/EGU2007-J-01071.pdf?PHPSESSID=e Methane release on the Arctic East Siberian shelf], ''Geophysical Research Abstracts'', '''9''', 01071.</ref>

Since 1988, experimentation at [[Pleistocene Park]] has proposed to restore the grasslands of prehistoric times by conducting research on the effects of large herbivores on permafrost, suggesting that animals, rather than climate, maintained the past ecosystem. The nature reserve park also conducts climatic research on the changes expected from the reintroduction of grazing animals or large herbivores, hypothesizing that a transition from [[tundra]] to grassland would lead to a net change in energy emission to absorption ratios.<ref name="Zimov 2005: Pleistocene Park: Return of the Mammoth's Ecosystem. Science Mag.">Sergey A. Zimov (6 May 2005): [https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.1113442 "Pleistocene Park: Return of the mammoths' ecosystem"] In: ''[[Science (journal)|Science]]'', pages 796–798. Article also to be found in [http://www.pleistocenepark.ru/en/materials/ www.pleistocenepark.ru/en/ – Materials.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161103172534/http://www.pleistocenepark.ru/en/materials/ |date=3 November 2016 }} Retrieved 5 May 2013.</ref>

According to Vasily Kryuchkov, approximately 31,000 square kilometers of the Russian Arctic has been subjected to severe environmental disturbance.