#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Climate is not a matter of comfort for us. It forces us to reckon with it every day, influencing both everyday plans and the entire life of the city and the combine’s work. Snow and snowstorms have become, one might say, our main attraction. Closed highways are not a surprise for us.
Norilsk weather began to be recorded only in 1961. That was when the Norilsk – Main meteorological station was opened. In fact, meteorological observations in our northern city were conducted much earlier. But locally, for our own needs – by the Norilsk combine.
The very first meteorological observations in Norilsk began when there was neither a city nor a combine: during the first wintering of geologists in 1921-1922. According to the recollections of that expedition head, Nikolay Urvantsev, the Sibgeolcom (the Siberian Geological Committee) decreed: “During the entire winter, conduct regular meteorological observations in order to establish the influence of weather conditions on winter work in Norilsk. These observations are very important for the construction of Norilsk. Although there is a meteorological station in Dudinka, which has been operating intermittently since 1907, their weather conditions are different”.
The geologists set up the station in an open area, near the first house under construction, about 100 meters from it and the astronomical point. One day in December, the blizzard reached such a force that it became impossible to leave the house. It was impossible to determine the wind speed using Wild’s weather vane, installed on the roof mast of the house. So Urvantsev crawled out of the entryway, climbed onto the roof and, lying behind the ridge, stuck his hand with the anemometer up over the ridge. The device showed a wind speed of 40 meters per second, and individual gusts reached 46 meters per second.
The first winterers conducted their observations all year. And they received interesting results. Firstly, indeed, the weather in Norilsk is very different from Dudinka. We almost never have severe northern winds, which prevail in Dudinka and are accompanied by severe frosts. But our southern winds are stronger and longer, which is due to their stock character from the mountains. Secondly, Urvantsev came to the conclusion that “in Norilsk in winter it is quite possible to work all day in an ordinary sheepskin coat. The main obstacle to work is a blizzard. With a wind of ten meters per second it is already difficult to walk, but it is quite possible to work in the adits in such weather”. Thus, the first meteorological conclusions decided the fate of Norilsk and its future builders.
They began to regularly monitor the Norilsk weather in 1934. Norilsk was then entrusted to the main directorate of the Northern Sea Route, which created its own weather station here. When construction began, the combine opened two of its own weather stations: in the industrial site area and on the lake Dolgoye shore, not far from the Old town. Later, they installed another one on lake Boganidskoye, where there was a transshipment base for the horse-drawn road from Dudinka. In 1939, an entire meteorological bureau was created under the combine’s design department. The network of weather stations was also expanded “to meet the needs and provide appropriate service to aviation and local shipping”. To provide transport with forecasts, they added posts on the Imangda river, on lake Lama, and three on – the Pyasina river. A weather station with an agricultural focus was created in the Kureisky state farm.
Thus, until the 1960s, the Norilsk combine and the city themselves monitored their weather. In the 1950s, a station operated on lake Tiskel, near Zub mountain, and the airports of Nadezhda and Valyok had their own meteorological services. But in October 1961, local meteorological observations were included in the all-Union system. The country’s hydrometeorological service’s main directorate opened its station here. That was due to the adopted requirement to provide forecasts to the population of cities where the temperature drops below 25 degrees below zero.
Judging by the archived journals of meteorologists, the minimum air temperature in the history of observations was recorded on January 3, 1994: –53.1 degrees. The maximum temperature was noted twice – on July 21, 2013 and June 23, 2022: +32 degrees.
In the History Spot’s previous publication, we talked on how a new stage for the Norilsk drama theater was born.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Olga Zaderyaka, Norilsk residents and the Nornickel Polar Division’s archives
