Weather locations in Tajikistan

Tajikistan is the smallest of the Central Asian republics, and by area it is the highest country in the world outside the Himalayas. It lies between about 36°N and 43°N, entirely landlocked between Uzbekistan in the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, China to the east and Afghanistan to the south, and the Pamir mountains occupy more than half its territory. Most of the population lives in the lowland valley of the Vakhsh and the Kofarnihon, north of the Pamirs, and those valleys carry the country's climate.

Main climate types

The prevailing type is a cold, continental, semi-arid desert and steppe climate, passing into tundra and ice at high elevation. The distinction between the valleys and the mountains is absolute: the lowlands around Dushanbe are dry and hot in summer, while the Pamir corridor around Khorog stays cold for most of the year.

Temperatures

The contrast is extreme. Dushanbe, in the valley at about 800 metres, averages about 2 °C in January and about 24 °C in July, and summer heat in the valley regularly exceeds 35 °C. Khorog, at about 2,300 metres in the Pamir corridor, averages about minus 4 °C in January and about 20 °C in July. Winter nights in the Pamirs often fall below minus 20 °C.

Rainfall

Precipitation is small and falls mainly in the cold half of the year. Dushanbe receives about 500 mm to 600 mm a year, with the most in March and April and again in October, and almost nothing in summer. Khujand in the north-west takes 500 mm to 700 mm. Much of the Pamir receives less than 200 mm, and the little that falls arrives as snow. In summer the melt water of the country's great glaciers, among them the Fedchenko glacier, feeds the rivers.

When to go

The Pamir highway and the high passes open only from about June to September, when the snow has melted; even then, nights stay near or below freezing. The lowland valleys, including Dushanbe, Khujand and the Silk Road cities, are most pleasant in April and May and in September and October.