Weather locations in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan stands in the Caucasus, where the great Caucasus ridge runs across the north and the Talysh mountains close the south against Iran. The country therefore holds both humid subtropical lowlands along the Kura and Araz rivers and semi-arid desert steppe to the east and north-west. The range runs from near subtropical warmth in the lowlands to cold, snow-covered uplands on the higher slopes.

Main climate types

Most of the lowland, including Baku and the Shirak plain, is classed as semi-arid to arid, and the rain it gets is light and erratic. The Lenkoran lowland at the southern end, sheltered by the Talysh range, is one of the wettest places in the region and holds a humid subtropical type with well over 1,500 millimetres a year. The highlands above roughly 1,500 metres pass from humid to alpine. These mountains run for hundreds of kilometres and their snowpack feeds the Kura.

Temperatures

Baku, on the coast, has January means near 5 degrees Celsius and July means near 26, so although winters are mild by European standards they are cold enough for occasional frost and snow. Humidity is elevated and the wind blows almost continuously. In the Lenkoran lowland January means drop to about 3 degrees while July rises to about 27. Higher stations are much cooler: at Gabala, around 1,500 metres up, January means fall near freezing and snow lies for weeks.

Rainfall

Annual rainfall is around 250 millimetres at Baku and over the surrounding semi-arid steppe, but the wettest months in eastern Azerbaijan come in late autumn and winter, when westerlies carry Atlantic-derived moisture over the range. The wettest region as a whole is the Lenkoran district, with 1,600 to 1,800 millimetres, most of it during the long autumn and winter. Spring and summer are comparatively dry everywhere below the mountains.

When to go

Spring and early summer, from April to June, are usually the best months in the lowlands, before the peak of the summer heat. Mountain areas such as Gabala and Sheki reward a visit from May to October, and the ski season on the northern slopes of the Caucasus runs from late December into early March.