Mongolia Issues Alert for Impending Blizzards
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Ulan Bator, Dec 23 (NationPress) The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) of Mongolia has announced a severe weather alert for various regions, expecting intense winds and blizzards to commence on Monday evening.
The blizzards are anticipated to affect the western, central, and southern Gobi provinces over the next two days, leading to poor visibility on roads and hazardous conditions, as stated by NEMA on Monday. Citizens, particularly nomadic herders and drivers, are urged to remain vigilant and take precautionary measures to prevent possible calamities.
Furthermore, more than 60 percent of Mongolia's land area is currently blanketed in snow, according to the National Agency for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring.
Mongolia, recognized for its severe continental climate, often endures extreme weather throughout the year. Being one of the few remaining nomadic societies globally, the nation is especially susceptible to sudden and intense weather phenomena.
The mixture of frigid temperatures and erratic weather patterns frequently results in catastrophic effects on both human and animal populations, as reported by the Xinhua news agency.
In a poignant instance of these dangers, over 10 individuals, primarily nomadic herders, perished in November 2023 due to heavy snow and blizzards in the central province of Tuv and the eastern province of Sukhbaatar.
This month, nighttime temperatures plummeted to a bone-chilling minus 42 degrees Celsius in Otgon soum, an administrative subdivision of Zavkhan province in western Mongolia.
This temperature marks the coldest recorded in Mongolia this winter, as announced by the National Agency for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring.
The agency has predicted that most regions of Mongolia will experience below-average temperatures throughout the winter.
Last winter, virtually all 21 provinces of the country faced extreme wintry conditions, locally termed as dzud, accompanied by record snowfall, the highest since 1975. Approximately 90 percent of the country was covered in snow up to 100 centimeters thick, resulting in the death of around 8 million livestock.
