Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

The past ten years in Azerbaijan, particularly in Baku and Absheron Peninsula have been among the coldest of the century, accompanied with the rising number of blizzards.

Although researchers forecasted relatively mild winter in Baku this year, frequent blizzards brought low temperatures, strong winds, and a lot of blowing snow to the city.

The sharp deterioration of weather in Baku and around the country since January 25 led the temperature fall to teeth-chattering minus 6-8 degrees Celsius recording snow of up to 64cm in the regions.

The coldest weather in Baku was reported in January 1972, while the chilliest January of the past 10 years was recorded in 2008.

Experts say the increase in number of blizzards has two possible explanations. Firstly, there may just be better documentation of storms nowadays, or it has something to do with a global climate change.

The Geography Institute of the Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences explained this trend with the climate change around the world.

“Blizzards are mostly occurred in the eastern part of the country namely along the Caspian Sea. Strong winds, however, are experienced in the western regions,” the Institute told Trend.

The experts claim the recent strong blizzards and heavy snow in Azerbaijan is the result of air masses originating over the snow fields of Eastern Europe.

“Western winds coming to Azerbaijan through Georgia are losing their speed reaching to the eastern part of the country. The blizzards in Gazakh, Zagatala, Balakan and neighboring regions are occurred due to the western winds, while in Baku and Absheron because of north and northwest winds,” they said.

But still, climatological data is volatile. The scientists of the institution are going to conduct studies during 2016-2018 to determine criteria of blizzards, strong winds, hurricanes, heavy rain and downpours typical for Azerbaijan.

“The studies will be carried out taking into account the nature and climate changes experienced in the country. Azerbaijan has no clear criteria about the occurrence of precipitations. During the Soviet period, we relied on the indicators recorded in the USSR area and formed criteria taking into account the Eastern European Plain, that’s why they were not typical for Azerbaijan,” the Geography Institution reported.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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