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I'll be moving there in September and from my understanding temperatures from December to February hover around the freezing mark, this is also the time of year when precipitation is lowest.
Is snowfall common and if so how many snowy days does the city get per year, also is it cold enough for snow to stay on the ground long or does it melt pretty quickly. Are heavy snowfalls/blizzards common/possible?
Sorry if my question sounds stupid, I've had a remarkably difficult time finding info (other than what's on Wikipedia), and as someone who lives in New Zealand, I'm not very experienced with these sort of winter temperatures.
Yes, snowfall is very common. Most likely, you should expect a white Christmas in Prague.
Snow happens every year from November to March, and sometimes it can snow in early-mid April too. On average, December and February have 16cm of snow, January 18cm. March 10-11cm so it's quite snowy too.
3 months have mean averages under 0°C so ice days are very common, beware of the very cold winters they have.
In recent years winters are rather snowless. Especially in areas with elevation below 300 meters/900 - 1000 feets. Prague has elevation just around this. So it receives more snow than lowlands. But average is around 70 cm/25 inches. Similar to New York, but Prague is located at 50 north (like Winnipeg). 10 latitudinal degrees further north than NY. City center defininitialy less thanks to UHI.
Don´t forget. Prague is borderline between Cfb/Dfb (Oceanic/continental). So variability from one year to another can be large. You can have winters pretty cold and snowy (2005/06, 2009/10, 2016/17) or mild London like (2013/14, 2015/16). Winters are never brutally cold like in North America or interior of Euroasia. Historic extremes are around -27 °C. Mostly from 19. and 20. century. While positives extremes are above 17 °C in all winter months. So with global warming trends there is higher chance to have mild and relatively snowless winters rather than cold. But even in the future cold and snowy winter can still arrive like in 2016/17. Common setup during cold winter is blocking high pressure over North Atlantic and/or Northern Europe. Still i think it's matter of time when we will hit 20°C in Prague. Even during mid winter.
Few winters since 2000 for Ruzyně airport:
First URL - Temperatures
Second URL - Snow (HEIGHT of snow cover, not accumulation!!)
Third URL - Sunshine
Winters got a bit warmer than they used to be, but usually there will be few days of snow and few weeks of temps below freezing. https://blog.northernhikes.com/166/p...nter-and-snow/
I am located much further north at the Baltic coast, and lately we get barely any snow in Winter, or the snow isn't long lasting.
In recent years winters are rather snowless. Especially in areas with elevation below 300 meters/900 - 1000 feets. Prague has elevation just around this. So it receives more snow than lowlands. But average is around 70 cm/25 inches. Similar to New York, but Prague is located at 50 north (like Winnipeg). 10 latitudinal degrees further north than NY. City center defininitialy less thanks to UHI.
Don´t forget. Prague is borderline between Cfb/Dfb (Oceanic/continental). So variability from one year to another can be large. You can have winters pretty cold and snowy (2005/06, 2009/10, 2016/17) or mild London like (2013/14, 2015/16). Winters are never brutally cold like in North America or interior of Euroasia. Historic extremes are around -27 °C. Mostly from 19. and 20. century. While positives extremes are above 17 °C in all winter months. So with global warming trends there is higher chance to have mild and relatively snowless winters rather than cold. But even in the future cold and snowy winter can still arrive like in 2016/17. Common setup during cold winter is blocking high pressure over North Atlantic and/or Northern Europe. Still i think it's matter of time when we will hit 20°C in Prague. Even during mid winter.
Few winters since 2000 for Ruzyně airport:
First URL - Temperatures
Second URL - Snow (HEIGHT of snow cover, not accumulation!!)
Third URL - Sunshine
Honestly, this answer is better than I could have imagined... Thank you so much <3
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