Mongolia issues alert for extreme cold wave

Ulan Bator, Jan 24 Mongolia is bracing for extremely cold weather in the coming days, as the National Agency for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring issued a warning on Friday.

Starting Saturday, cold air from Siberia, Russia, will sweep across large parts of Mongolia, bringing overnight temperatures that could exceed minus 40 degrees Celsius, the weather agency said in a warning.

"Last year, the lowest temperature recorded in our country was minus 48.8 degrees Celsius on January 23 in the western province of Zavkhan," the agency said, predicting that similar conditions will affect the western regions during this weekend.

Meanwhile, other parts of the country, particularly the national capital Ulan Bator, are expected to experience temperatures 10-15 degrees colder than recent days, with heavy snow anticipated throughout the weekend.

The cold wave is expected to cause significant disruptions, and the public, especially nomadic herders, are urged to take precautionary measures to protect themselves and their livestock from the extreme conditions, Xinhua news agency reported.

Several soums (administrative subdivisions) across Mongolian provinces are grappling with extreme winter conditions.

Earlier this month, the agency had warned that at least 40 per cent of the country's territory was at high risk of experiencing the extreme wintry weather 'dzud' this winter.

The dzud is a Mongolian term to describe a severely cold winter when many livestock die because the ground is frozen or covered in snow.

"A recent risk assessment of the dzud indicates that at least 40 per cent of the country's total territory faces a high risk of dzud this winter, while 20 per cent is categorized as medium risk," the weather monitoring agency said in a statement.

Most areas in the five western provinces, Bayan-Ulgii, Uvs, Khovd, Zavkhan, and Gobi-Altai, were at high or very high risk, the agency had warned.

Additionally, some parts of the northern provinces, Khuvsgul, Selenge, and Bulgan, the central provinces of Arkhangai and Uvurkhangai, and smaller areas of the southern provinces of Bayankhongor and Dundgovi are also at high risk.

Mongolia, one of the world's last remaining nomadic nations, is known for its extreme winters, largely shaped by the Siberian high-pressure system.

Last winter, the Asian country experienced its heaviest snowfall in five decades, leading to a severe dzud that resulted in the loss of millions of livestock.

The combination of frigid temperatures and unpredictable weather patterns often leads to devastating consequences for both human and animal populations.

In a tragic example of such risks, over 10 people, mainly nomadic herders, lost their lives in November 2023 due to heavy snow and blizzards in the central province of Tuv and the eastern province of Sukhbaatar.

Last winter, nearly all 21 provinces of the country endured extreme wintry conditions, accompanied by record snowfall, the largest since 1975. Around 90 per cent of the country's territory was covered in snow up to 100 centimetres thick, leading to the death of approximately eight million livestock.

Source: IANS