The July temperature of all the rest of the Ukraine is much higher than this. The July isotherm of +20°, like all the July isotherms of the Ukraine, runs in a northeast direction past the source of the Sbruch and the mouth of the Pripet, and the further we advance from this line towards the southeast, the hotter the summers we find.
On the lower Dniester and Dnieper the mean July temperature exceeds -(-23°. Following are a number of July means: Czernowitz -)-20.1°, Kiev +22.6°, Katerinoslav and Mikolaiv +23°, Luhan -(-22.4°, Tahanroh -(-22.8°. The strongest degrees of heat are +37° to +43°, and the mean annual maxima are +35.5° for Luhan. The duration of the heat period with temperatures of +20° and over is two months southeast of a line which runs near Kishiniv, Poltava and Kharkiv, one month southeast of the line of Mohiliv, Kaniv and Kursk. The total duration of the summer is only in the northwest of the Ukraine as short as three months; otherwise it is four, and on the Black Sea even four and a half.
The autumn of the Ukraine is regularly very beautiful and comparatively warm. The month of October has a mean of temperature higher than the annual (Lemberg +9.1°). But even in October the warm sunny days are followed by night frosts. The moist autumnal weather which begins the transition to winter lasts as much as two months in the northwest; beyond that, one to one and a half months. The mean date of the earliest frost is October 19th for Kiev, October 11th for Luhan, October 28th for Micolaiv, and November 10th for Odessa.
A different position, climatically, is that of Crimea, the sub-Caucasian country, as well as the mountain islands of the Carpathians, the Yaila and the Caucasus. In the temperature conditions of Crimea and the sub-Caucasus country, the influence of their southerly location and the proximity of the sea is everywhere apparent. The mean temperature is everywhere higher than +10° (Simferopol
+12.1°). The winter is short and comparatively mild (January mean of Simferopol — 4.7°), but very variable. The degrees of frost are sometimes quite high (Sevastopol — 16.9°, Stavropol — 25.6° as absolute minima), but the frost period is short (one to two months). The spring begins in March with full force; in May follows the five-months' summer. The July means are very high, especially in the sub-Caucasus country, the heat period lasting everywhere more than two months. (July mean of Simferopol -f- 28°, Sevastopol 33.1°, Stavropol +20°, Katerinodar +25.3°). The long autumn also is very mild.
South of the Yaila and Caucasus Mountains, on the shore of the Black Sea, lies a narrow strip of land which actually shows Mediterranean climatic characteristics. The winter lasts less than a month and is very mild (January mean of Yalta +3.5°, altho the absolute minimum is — 13°), and, as in Novorossiysk, cold, bora-like gusts of wind are common in times of heavy cold. After a long spring follows a six-months' summer, which passes imperceptibly into a mild autumn.
The climate of the mountains of the Ukraine has been but little investigated. In the entire Ukrainian territory there is not a single meteorological observatory. The general characteristics of mountain climate, its greater uniformity, the smaller difference between the warmest and coldest months, the belated beginning of all the seasons, etc., may be found in all the mountains of the Ukraine.
Only the climate of the Ukrainian Carpathians is somewhat better known. The dreariest climate is that of the Beskyds and the Gorgani. The five-months' winter and long periods of sloppy weather in the spring and in the fall encroach upon the short summer. The Chornohora chain, despite the greater height of its peaks, upon which the snow in sheltered places remains lying thru the entire summer, has a much milder and pleasanter climate. The influence of the warm summer of the adjacent plain regions limits the duration of the sloppy weather in spring and autumn. For this reason, the mountain valleys have a short but very beautiful spring, a warm summer, and a wonderful mild autumn. The mountain pastures have in place of the summer only a three months' spring.
In the Yaila Mountains, as a result of their small size and height, the characteristics of typical mountain climate are lacking, but in the Caucasus we find them in their highest development. The analogy to the Alps is perfect, but the influence of the continental steppe climate of the surrounding country is unmistakable, expressing itself in the position of the various climatic regions, in the height of the snow limit, in the development of the glacial covering, etc., very distinctly and very differently than in the Alps, which are surrounded by countries with a climate of a different kind.