What kind of climate does most of Mongolia have?

Answer 1

Mongolia has an extreme continental climate with long cold winters and short summers, most of its rains fall during the summer. Mongolia has about 257 cloudless days per year, and it is generally a region of high atmospheric pressure. Rainfall is highest in the north, with averages of 20 to 35 centimetres per year, and lowest in the south, with averages 10 to 20 centimetres. The Gobi Desert in the south has some regions that receive no rain at all for years at a time. "Gobi" is a Mongol word, meaning desert, salt marsh, depression, or steppe, but usually refers to a category of arid rangeland unable to support marmots but with enough to support camels. Mongols distinguish Gobi from desert proper, although the distinction is not always apparent to outsiders unfamiliar with the Mongolian landscape. Gobirangelands are fragile and are easily destroyed by overgrazing, which results in expansion of the true desert, a stony waste where not even Bactrian camels can survive. From November through March average temperatures over most of the country are below freezing they warm up to aproximately freezing in April and October. January and February averages of -20° C are normal, and winters nights of -40° C are to be expected during most years. In the Summer Temperatures may get as high as 38° C in the southern Gobi region and 33° C in Ulaanbaatar. More than half the country is covered by permafrost, which makes construction, road building, and mining difficult. Rivers and freshwater lakes are frozen over in the winter, with smaller streams usually completely frozen. Ulaanbaatar lies at 1,351 meters above sea level in the valley of the Tuul Gol, a river. Located in the relatively well-watered north, it receives an annual average of 31 centimetres of rain most of which falls in July and August. Ulaanbaatar has an average annual temperature of -2.9°C and a frost-free period extending on the average from mid-June to late August. Mongolia's weather is extremely variable in the short-term and unpredictable in the summer. There are wild variations in average yearly rainfall, and the times frosts, and occurrences such as blizzards and spring dust storms. This sort of weather can make life very hard for human and livestock survival. Official statistics list less than 1 percent of the country as arable, 8 to 10 percent as forest, and the rest as pasture or desert. Grain, mostly wheat, is grown in the valleys of the Selenge river system in the north. Yields fluctuate widely and are unpredictable because of the unreliability of rainfall and the ever-present likelihood of killing frosts. In the winters there are occasional blizzards that cover pasture with enough snow and ice to make grazing impossible, killing thousands of sheep and cattle. These losses of livestock are accepted as inevitable and make planing livestock numbers difficult.

Answer 2

Mongolia has a dry and cold climate. The winters are long and cold. Mongolia's summers are short and most of the precipitation falls during this time.