Climate and weather around Mount Ararat
The sources consulted for this page do not provide a long-term station record from the slopes of Mount Ararat itself. What exists is a long provincial station series from Türkiye’s meteorological service, a small number of measurements and descriptions made on the mountain in the nineteenth century, and the Ağrı Governorship’s general statement about the climbing season. Together they describe a region of cold winters, a wet spring and very dry summers, and a mountain that makes its own cloud. This page sets out those records. It is not a forecast. For current conditions the official source is the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
The official station series for Ağrı
MGM publishes long-term statistics for the station it lists under the name Ağrı, the provincial centre, with a stated measurement period of 1940–2025. The page does not give the station’s position or elevation. Its figures must not be treated as measurements of weather on the slopes or summit of Mount Ararat. The figures therefore describe the regional climate of the upland, not the conditions at height.
| Month | Mean temperature (°C) | Mean daily maximum (°C) | Mean daily minimum (°C) | Mean precipitation (mm) | Mean rainy days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | −10.4 | −5.2 | −15.4 | 42.9 | 11.6 |
| February | −9.0 | −3.3 | −14.3 | 46.6 | 11.1 |
| March | −2.9 | 2.4 | −7.7 | 53.6 | 12.3 |
| April | 6.1 | 12.0 | 0.8 | 71.0 | 14.2 |
| May | 12.0 | 18.8 | 5.3 | 70.0 | 15.6 |
| June | 16.6 | 24.4 | 8.3 | 43.1 | 9.9 |
| July | 21.1 | 29.4 | 12.2 | 22.1 | 5.8 |
| August | 21.4 | 30.2 | 12.0 | 12.7 | 3.9 |
| September | 16.4 | 25.5 | 7.0 | 18.8 | 4.5 |
| October | 9.3 | 17.4 | 2.1 | 53.7 | 8.8 |
| November | 1.8 | 8.0 | −3.4 | 45.9 | 8.3 |
| December | −6.2 | −1.5 | −10.4 | 44.0 | 10.7 |
Source: MGM, statistics for Ağrı, measurement period 1940–2025, read on 25 September 2026. Rainy days are rounded to one decimal. The monthly mean precipitation figures add up to about 524 mm a year; that total is this reference’s sum, not a figure published on the page.
The same page lists the extremes of the record. The highest temperature is 40.2 °C (August) and the lowest −45.6 °C (January). The greatest daily precipitation is 125.9 mm, on 23 June 1964. The fastest wind is 46.3 m/s, on 9 April 2009, and the greatest snow depth is 225 cm, on 21 February 1985.
What the series shows
Three features stand out. Winters are long and severe: mean temperatures stay below freezing from December to March, and mean minimum temperatures fall to about −15 °C in January. Spring is the wettest season, with April and May each averaging about 70 mm and more than 14 rainy days. Summer is dry: August averages under 13 mm of precipitation and about four rainy days. The Governorship’s statement that July, August and September are the most suitable months for climbing matches this summer minimum. The page also calls winter ascents hard.
A dry region in the nineteenth century
James Bryce, who climbed Ararat in September 1876, stressed the dryness of the setting. He wrote that the mountain stands in “an exceptionally dry region, whose rainfall is only 10 or 12 inches in the year”. He quoted an annual rainfall of 6.08 inches (about 154 mm) at Aralykh, at the north-eastern foot, against 14.68 inches at Alexandropol, 90 miles to the north-west. He used this to explain why the permanent snow line on Ararat lies so high, at nearly 14,000 feet. Hot, dry air rises from the Aras plain along the mountain’s sides and melts the snow. In winter, he added, the whole region except the Aras valley below Erivan lies under thick snow. By September it has gone from every exposed summit except Ararat.
The two sets of figures are not comparable: one is a modern provincial station on the upland, the other a nineteenth-century figure for a single place on the Aras plain. Together they show only that the area around the mountain is dry by mountain standards.
The mountain’s own cloud
Bryce describes a daily pattern that “is the first thing to strike every observer”. In summer and autumn the top is usually clear through the night and until some time after dawn. As the plain heats up, warm air rises along the slopes and condenses when it reaches the snow. About three or four hours after sunrise, cloud forms out of a clear sky around the upper 3,000 feet and hangs there, shifting, until sunset. At sunset it usually vanishes and leaves the peak clear again. The surrounding mountains, which carry no snow, stay cloudless. The cloud belt shows even in early drawings of the mountain: Parrot praised one engraving for its “belt of clouds about the mountain”.
Observations on the mountain
The few temperatures taken on Ararat in the nineteenth century are single readings, not a record of climate. Parrot, on his second attempt in September 1829, set off on the morning of the 19th (Old Style) from a night camp high on the north-western side with the thermometer “four degrees below the freezing point”. On the summit of Little Ararat, on 27 October (8 November) 1829, he met falling snow, a cold, humid west wind and thick mist. The fingers of his party froze through woollen gloves on the final ridge. At their night camp at the foot of Little Ararat, water carried in a skin was partly frozen by morning.
Using the records
The station series describes averages at one lowland site; the historical observations describe particular days more than a century ago. Neither says what the weather will be on the mountain on a given date. For that, MGM issues forecasts and warnings for Ağrı. Each forecast is valid for a stated place and period and carries an issue time. How weather and hazard wording in sources should be read is explained on risk language. Snow and ice records are on snow and ice on Mount Ararat.
Sources
- Meteoroloji Genel Müdürlüğü, statistics page for Ağrı, measurement period 1940–2025. Read 25 September 2026.
- Ağrı Valiliği, Ağrı Dağı (page dated 14.09.2020). Checked 14 September 2026.
- James Bryce, Transcaucasia and Ararat, 3rd ed., London: Macmillan, 1878, ch. VI pp. 222–226. Internet Archive. Read 25 September 2026.
- Friedrich Parrot, Journey to Ararat, translated by W. D. Cooley, New York: Harper and Bros., 1846, ch. VII p. 148, ch. VIII, ch. XII pp. 255–257. Internet Archive. Read 25 September 2026.
- Meteoroloji Genel Müdürlüğü, hourly forecast for Ağrı. Service reference; check the issue time when you use it.