charyn.kz an independent guide to wild Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan climate by month: cities and places

Choose a city or place and a month for day and night normals, precipitation, point elevation and a season rating. These are averages over years, not a forecast.

City normals: day and night, °C
CityJanAprJulOct
Almaty0 / −817 / 729 / 1716 / 5
Astana−12 / −1913 / 126 / 149 / 0
Shymkent5 / −420 / 934 / 2019 / 7
Karaganda−11 / −1813 / 226 / 149 / −1
Oskemen−10 / −2016 / 228 / 1512 / 1
Aktau3 / −317 / 833 / 2318 / 9
Atyrau−3 / −816 / 833 / 2314 / 6
Petropavl−13 / −2011 / 124 / 147 / 0

These are averages over years, not the weather on a given date. Use them to choose a month and clothes, and still check a forecast before you leave.

ERA5 normal for 2011–2020 at a reanalysis grid point. Not a forecast and not a weather station.

Source: Open-Meteo, ERA5 reanalysis, 2011–2020.

Do not pack for the city if you are heading out of it

A July trip from Almaty can take in very different conditions. Compare the place you will actually be in, not only your arrival city.

JulyDay, °CNight, °CPrecipitation, mmPoint elevation, mRating
Almaty281744814none
Charyn Canyon3017331,048hard
Kolsai Lakes1891552,361best time

That is a 12 °C daytime gap between two sights you might combine. You need light clothes for one and a warm layer and rain jacket for the other. The packing list uses these same figures.

Engraving: an old mountain weather station on a meadow, a louvred instrument box, wind vane and rain gauge, half of the sky sunny and half with snow cloud, peaks behind
Illustration Engraving: an old mountain weather station on a meadow, a louvred instrument box, wind vane and rain gauge, half of the sky sunny and half with snow cloud, peaks behind

Two kinds of data sit behind the numbers

Most figures are computed rather than measured on site, and the tool labels which is which.

For the 20 cities and 128 places, the source is the ERA5 reanalysis for 2011–2020, via Open-Meteo. It estimates conditions for a set of coordinates. For 10 other places, we use the 1991–2020 normals from the nearest station with an open table.

The table below the tool shows eight cities in January, April, July and October. Astana and Karaganda look identical there only because of rounding: across those four months, their figures differ by at most 0.7 °C.

Where the figures stop being reliable

Normals are good for choosing a month and clothes. Do not read them to the degree.

  • Two sources disagree even in one city. In July, Almaty shows 28 and 17 °C on ERA5, while the Botanical Garden on the Almaty station shows 31 and 19 °C. Allow 2 to 3 °C either way.
  • The computed point has its own elevation. For Kolsai it sits at 2,361 m. The lower lake is at 1,818 m and the middle lake at 2,252 m, so conditions at the water will differ.
  • Summits use a city station. Talgar Peak (4,973 to 4,979 m), Furmanov Peak (3,053 m) and Big Almaty Peak (3,680 m) show normals from 847 m. We found no source for an altitude correction, so use these rows only for the run of the seasons.
  • A station can be far away. Saryagash uses Shymkent, roughly 130 km by road from the resort.
  • Ten places have no climate data. They lack coordinates, so they are not in the menu.

Search demand by month is a separate question, covered in our seasonality research. For ideas in the warm months, see the summer list.

Frequently asked questions

Is this a weather forecast?
No. These are long-term normals: ERA5 for 2011–2020, or a weather station for 1991–2020. Check a forecast for your actual dates just before you leave.
Why do Almaty and its Botanical Garden show different figures?
They use different data. The city uses ERA5 for 2011–2020 and the garden uses the Almaty station for 1991–2020. In July the gap is 3 °C by day and 2 °C at night.
What do the season ratings mean?
They rate a month for a trip, on four steps: avoid, hard, good, best time. They come from each place’s page. Cities have no rating.
Can I trust the figures for mountain summits?
Only for the run of the seasons. Talgar, Furmanov and Big Almaty peaks use the Almaty station at 847 m, and the summits are 2 to 4 km higher.

Sources

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