The Central European climatic zone stops at the western borders of the Ukraine. Similarly, the cool Eastern European continental climate, which rules over all of White and Great Russia, embraces only insignificant borderlands in the north of Ukrainian territory. The Ukrainian climate assumes an entirely independent position. It is more continental than that of Central Europe and differs from that of Great Russia in its greater mildness. The Ukraine shares with France the advantage that in its territory the direct transition from the temperate climate of Eastern Europe to the Mediterranean climate of Southern Europe takes place.
The thermal conditions of the Ukraine, despite its great size, are very uniform. The yearly averages fluctuate between +6° and +9° C. Ternopil, in Podolia, and Vovchansk, in the Kharkov country, have the same yearly temperature of +6.3°, Pinsk +6.7°, Kiev and Kharkiv +6.8°, Lviv (Lemberg) and Poltava +6.9°. The differences are confined within a space of 1°C. Chernivtzi (Czernowitz) in the Bukowina, Yelisavet in the Kherson region, and [[86]]Luhan in the Donetz region have an annual temperature of 7.6° or 7.7°, Katerinoslav on the Dnieper, Tahanroh on the Sea of Azof, and Stavropol in the sub-Caucasus country 8.3° or 8.2°. This great coincidence of yearly averages in so widely separated places is all the more surprising, since the mean temperature falls considerably directly behind the borders of the Ukraine. Thus, Kursk has only +5.2°, Voroniz +5.4°.
Not until we reach the southern borders of the Ukraine does the mean temperature rise considerably. Odessa and Kishiniv have +9.8°, Mikolaiv +9.7°, Simferopol +10.1°, Sevastopol +12.2°, Katerinodar +12.1°, Novorossiysk +12°, Yalta +13.4° mean annual temperature. The last-named place actually lies in the narrow belt of the Mediterranean climate, on the southern slope of the Yaila Mountains.
Comparing the annual averages of the Ukraine with those of different places in Western and Central Europe, the latter appear relatively much higher. London, situated in the same geographical latitude as Kursk has an annual temperature almost twice as high (+10.3°). London is on the average even a little warmer than Simferopol, which actually lies 650 km. nearer the equator. Brussels lies a little more north than Kiev, yet it is in the mean warmer than Odessa.
The cause of this unfavorable relation is the severe winter of the Ukraine. The mean temperature of January is +3.5° in London, +2° in Brussels, +1.2° in Frankfort a m., -1.2° in Prague, -3.3° in Cracow. In the Ukraine the January means are much lower. Lemberg has -4.6°, Kiev has -6.2°, Kharkiv -8.3°, Luhan -8°, Vovchansk -7.7°, Katerinoslav -7.4°, etc. To be sure this is not remarkable when compared with the January temperatures of even the south of Great Russia, where the winter suggests polar conditions, but the antithesis to the winter climate of Western and Central Europe is striking. Hammerfest, [[87]]the northernmost city of the earth, is one degree warmer than Kiev in January and even a little warmer than Lemberg.
On the other hand, the summer of the Ukraine is even warmer than that of Western and Central Europe. The July mean of London is +17.9° C., of Brussels 18°, Lemberg the same, but Kiev has as much as 19.2°, Kharkiv 20.9°. The differences in the summer temperatures are much smaller, however, than the differences in the winter temperatures—hence the comparatively low annual mean in the Ukraine.
These figures clearly show the continental character of the Ukrainian climate. The influences of the Atlantic Ocean, which still strongly dominate the climate of Central Europe, become slight in the Ukraine. Particularly, the southern part of the Ukraine is almost unaffected by the mitigating influence of a nearby ocean, and the necessary result is the low winter-temperatures. But the continental character of the Ukrainian climate is, nevertheless, not so strongly marked as that of the Russian or Siberian climate. Kamishin, Semipalatinsk, Blagovieshchensk, situated on the same degree of latitude as Kiev, have a January mean of -11.6°, 17.5° and -25.4°, and a July mean of +24.1°, +22.2° and +21.3°, respectively. The influences of the Black Sea, altho in general not great, are at least unmistakable in the coastal region of the Ukraine.
The difference between the mean of the coldest and that of the warmest month is slighter in the Ukraine than in Russia or Siberia, to be sure, but it is, at any rate, considerable. Only in the Mediterranean climate of Southern Crimea does the difference amount to as little as 20°. The rest of Crimea, the sub-Caucasian country and the northwestern part of the Ukraine as far as Kiev and Uman have a difference of 20°-25°, Lemberg, for example, 22.6°, Pinsk 24°, Chernivtzi 25.1°, Kiev 25.2°. [[88]]On the other hand, the southern and the entire eastern part of the Ukraine, especially east of the Dnieper, shows a considerable difference, from 25° to 30°, as for example, Kiev 25.4°, Odessa and Mikolaiv 26.3°, Poltava 27.3°, Kharkiv and Tahanroh over 29°, Luhan and Katerinoslav 30.4°.
The winter appears severe in the entire Ukraine, with the exception of Crimea and the sub-Caucasian country.
The January mean temperature of -4° to -8° then obtains in the entire wide territory. Lemberg has -4.3°, Tarnopol -5.5°, Chernivtzi -5.1°, Kiev -6.2°, Vovchansk -7.7°, Katerinoslav -7.4°, Mikolaiv -4.3°, Tahanroh -6.7°, Luhan -8°. Even the southern lands of the Ukraine have a low mean for January, for example, Odessa -3.7° (Kishiniv -3.5°), while Kamenetz owes its exceptionally high mean, -3.3°, to its sheltered location in a “yar.” The January isotherms run from northwest to southeast in Ukrainian territory, in a wide curve, which becomes increasingly flat toward the southeast. For this reason the cold in the Ukraine grows in intensity not in a northern but in a northeastern direction. The mean annual minimum almost everywhere exceeds -20° (Lemberg -19.2°, Chernivtzi -21.1°, Tarnopol -23.4°, Kiev -23.2°, Mikolaiv -21.4°, Luhan -28.4°). The absolute extremes attain very high values. The absolute minimum amounts to -30° in Mikolaiv and Odessa, -33.1° in Kiev, -34° in Ternopil, -35° in Lemberg and Czernowitz, -40.8° in Luhan.