"NOAH" Ethnographic District ARUP | Page 15

Concept Vision Development Climate analysis Average Annual Temperatures Armenia has a tremendous climatic variety packed in a small physical area. Much of this is due to Armenia’s unique weather systems, which mix moisture from heavy snowfalls in the mountains and the Black and Caspian Seas with hot blasts of air from the Syrian and Iranian plateaus. The complicity of its topographical contest has a big impact on its climate. As presented in the diagrams, about half of Armenia’s area has an elevation of at least 2.000m which creates high mountains with snowy and cold winters. Those mountains are covered by large forests in North-eastern and Southern Armenia and therefore are producing their own climates. While the mountains may be covered with snow, lower valleys are clear, getting their irst spring lowers as early as the end of January. Meanwhile, due to its particular landscape, the central area of the country is considered dry and warm. That means that Ararat Valley which is one of the lowest areas in Armenia, and does not receive as much snowfall or rain as the upper elevations is has the warmer climate in the country with an average summer temperature that range ranges 25-30° C. 15