The weather & climate in the Giant Mountains

Climate in the Giant Mountains

Podkrkonosi is located on the border of Giant Mountains slopes and plains of Elbe river. It has the character of wavy landscape composed of several ridges, which reaches a height of 400-600 m above sea level and the highest point is the hill Zvicina - 671 m above sea level. Podkrkonosi covers an area of ​​almost 700 km2, with slopes oriented to the south, which makes there very favourable local climate documented by an ancient settlement. The foothills area of Podkrkonoší is slightly warm, rich with clear skies and sunshine, the total sunshine amounts to 1,700 hours per year. Winter is rich in snow with an average January temperature of -3°C, the average temperature in July is 17°C and daytime temperatures in often reach 25 to 30°C, and the character of the weather is ideal for cycling and hiking, but also suitable for swimming or walking deep forests.

The Giant Mountains are geomorphologic unit and the highest mountains in the Czech Republic and in the whole massif of Sudetenland. They are located in northern Bohemia and southern Polish part of Silesia. The highest peak is Snezka (1602 m).

Giant Mountains ridge is 35 km long, starts in the West at Novosvetske sedlo (888 m) in the east, and ends in Kralovecke sedlo (516 m). Peaks of the mountains are flat and fall sharply to the northeast of Poland. On the opposite side, to the southwest, the slopes are divided by deep valleys into which fall considerably milder. Giant mountains are divided into Krkonoske hrbety and Vrchlabska vrchovina.

As to the climate, the Giant Mountains belong to mild climatic zone with typical alternation of four seasons. The ridges are the highest barrier to the flow of humid and cold air from the Atlantic Ocean resulting in large amounts of precipitation and low temperatures.

The average annual temperature is on the peaks around 0°C and at the foothills around 6°C. At the foot of the Giant Mountains, annual precipitation is around 800 mm and on the ridges up to 1400 mm.

Giant Mountains have the roughest climate conditions from all Czech mountains. The climate of highest peaks lying above the 1400 m is comparable with the Greenland coast climate. Average annual maximum snow cover is reaching 2 meters (and last up to six months) and average annual temperatures range between 0 and 2°C. There are often strong winds blowing and the weather is misty and foggy.