Current RFE Weather – Key Cities:

http://weather.yahoo.com/regional/Asia/Russia_East.html

Weather sites that cover the Russian Far East:

http://meteo.infospace.ru

http://www.wunderground.com/global/RS.html

Additional information is available from the National Weather Service in Alaska, which has information from some RFE reporting stations; air carriers; and other weather web sites or location web sites.

Winters tend to be colder in Russia’s northeast than in Alaska.

Summers tend to be warmer in much of the Russian Far East than in Alaska.

• Interior Alaska can be extremely cold in winter, but interior parts of Siberia and the Russian Far East are usually colder.

• Temperatures in Russia are measured on the centigrade scale (Celsius) while Alaska uses the Fahrenheit scale. At around 44 degrees below zero, the two scales coincide. Minus 44 C = minus 44 F. At that point, you can drop the C or F identifier. It is not uncommon for mid-winter temperatures in interior Alaska, eastern Siberia and northeastern Russia to hover at this degree of extreme cold where you it doesn’t matter which scale you use.

• Bering Strait region subject to sudden changes. Flights between Alaska and Chukotka are weather-dependent and delays due to fog, low clouds or storms not uncommon.

• Sakhalin Island, despite its more southerly latitude, has sub-arctic conditions similar to Alaska, particularly in the north where oil and gas activity is centered. Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk has winter conditions similar to Valdez – snow, cold and more snow.

• Vladivostok, more southerly and coastal, has relatively moderate seasons with weather similar to its sister city Juneau.

• Magadan, despite its location on the Sea of Okhotsk at a slightly lower latitude than its sister city Anchorage, is typically colder than Anchorage.

• Arctic Alaska and extreme arctic RFE have long winters, which can last 9-10 months.

• RFE winters often result in conditions inside that can be alternately overheated or so cool as to require warm clothes indoors, depending on vagaries of energy supplies.

• RFE summers tend to be milder than Alaska with longer growing seasons (in sub-arctic areas), capable of supporting fruits and vegetables that cannot be grown in Alaska except in greenhouses.

• Summers in the RFE, just as in Alaska, can bring plagues of mosquitoes, particularly in tundra wetlands, the arctic and the northern interior.

• Coastal areas of Alaska and the RFE are often battered by winds.

• Much of Alaska, eastern Siberia and the RFE have similar flora, fauna and climates.