The Windswept Land


 
 
Weather in Mongolia

I thought I'd take this page and talk a little bit about what the weather is like in Mongolia. Maybe this will be helpful for someone planning on going to Mongolia, and if not maybe it'll just be some interesting stories.

I got to Mongolia in March, which was after a very cold winter. In March the weather is supposedly warming up a little bit in Mongolia, but I couldn't tell when I got there. It still felt freezing cold. The picture of me with the camel is from my first day in Mongolia. We took a trip up to Zaisan (a Russian monument in Ulaanbaatar) and when we were coming back down we saw this camel wandering by so we took some pictures. It felt really cold that day, but part of it might have been that I wasn't dressed very well - I only had my trenchcoat on.

Anyway, so I got to Mongolia just in time for the dusty windstorms that start after winter in early spring. The windstorms are kind of crazy at first. The wind is blowing so hard and there's dust everywhere. You walk outside for a little bit and come back in with a dirty brown face from all the dirt flying around.

Summertime is when you want to go to Mongolia if you're just sight-seeing or visiting. It's really beautiful in the summer and the temperatures aren't bad. It's especially nice if you can get out and spend some time in the countryside. I've taken pictures from the train during the summer that look unbelievable - the sun going down behind rolling hills with green grass, a river winding down to a pool where horses are drinking. You think I'm making this up, but I'm serious. Mongolia is really a nice tourist spot during the summer.

And now for the winter. Mongolian winters are COLD. If you're reading this and haven't lived somewhere really cold before you might be thinking-what's the big deal? It can't be that cold. But let me tell you - oh yes it can. When I was in Mongolia I remember the temperature got down to negative 50 degrees fahrenheit. Now that was early in the morning before I got out of the house, but still, negative 40 seemed like a regular thing there (-40 for fahrenheit and celsius are about the same). I actually have a story that'll show you how cold it was.


 
  




Me and the camel at the bottom of Zaisan



The Story of the Frozen Nohoi

Okay, so it must have been in either late December or sometime in January when this happened. It was a usual day for winter in Mongolia - freezing cold. Tabish and I were headed out to meet with some people that lived in the north part of the Sukhbaatar district (Dambadarjaa). The houses were a ways in from the main road so we had to walk in for a while to get there.There was snow and ice everywhere you looked. The wind was blowing really hard and it was so cold that we tried not to talk so that we could stay huddled inside our warm coats.

By this time of course I had learned to dress warmly when I went out in the cold. I had my thermals on underneath, with my suit on over that. Over my white shirt I had a sweater on. On top I had my long warm down coat with the hood up and gloves, hat and scarf. The only things you could see were my eyes and everything else was bundled up. But I was still freezing.

So we trekked into the ger district and met with our first appointment. I thought maybe it would be warm once we got inside, but they didn't have the fire going. I think they were trying to save their coal for that night. At least we were able to get out of the wind, but it didn't help much. The cold just seemed to seep in until it felt like my whole body was made of ice. They didn't have a fire at the next house either and by the time we were getting ready to head back to the bus stop I couldn't feel my feet. I remember on the walk back we had to go across this frozen field. There was nothing to block the wind so it was hitting us full force and we just tried to huddle in our hoods to keep it out. Then, just as we found shelter from the wind in between some houses it started to snow.

We walked on in silence trying to get back to the bus stop as fast as we could. And that's when I saw the dog. He was a little ways off and I was squinting to keep the snowflakes out of my eyes, but he looked like he had his paw up in the air facing the other direction. I didn't think anything of it right then, but as we got closer I thought Wow, this dog doesn't like to move, it's still just standing there with its paw up in the air. But then as we got even closer it still didn't move. It was standing there just staring like it was looking at something off in the distance. When we passed by I made sure to get a good look at it even though I was too cold to do anything else. In my mind I was saying there's no way, but when I passed by I knew it was true...the dog was frozen standing up! Now you may not believe me and I don't blame you because I couldn't believe it myself, but it's true. Mongolian winters are so cold that they can freeze you where you stand! Maybe it was so cold that day that my brain was half frozen and playing tricks on me, but hey, it's still a cool story...

 



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