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WINTER IN MONGOLIA

Winter in northern Mongolia.

The weather in Mongolia is full of extremes and unexpected calamities. Although reference books write that little snow falls during winter, heavy snowfalls and sudden blizzards do often occur.

In 1998, the country lost more than a third of its grain crop under snow. And herders from western Mongolia will never forget the snowfall during the spring of 1993. Three weeks of snowstorms buried almost a quarter of the country for a month and a half.

"All communication, even between neighbors, was cut. Camels could not walk in deep snow for more than a few steps. Everything that could be burned was used. To boil a cup of water, herders removed wooden poles from the gher (felt tent) base," describes Baatar, a Mongol TV reporter who visited the stricken areas on a border guards' helicopter.

Nine Nines of Winter
While reference books speak of a six-month long winter with temperatures falling below - 30oC in January and February, and Ulaanbaatar city being the coldest capital of the world, Mongols know all the better.
According to ancient knowledge, winter in Mongolia actually lasts 81 days, or Nine Nines as they are known.
The signs of the Nine Nines are familiar to everyone, starting with the maiden day of winter or the first moon of mid-November, 81 days before the Lunar New Year which brings in the first day of spring.
First nine - shimijn arkhi (mild alcoholic beverage made of milk) congeals
Second nine - arkhi (vodka) congeals
Third nine - tail of three-year-old ox freezes
Fourth - horns of four-year-old ox freeze
Fifth nine - boiled rice does not congeal any more
Sixth nine - roads blacken
Seventh nine - hilltops blacken
Eighth nine - ground becomes damp
Ninth nine - warm days set in

"No food supplies were available. Ghers were surrounded by piles of dead sheep. Some of the corpses were stripped of all wool. People do not go out unless it is an urgent need. Many are snow blind."

As a result of this dzud or natural disaster, more than one million livestock perished, and hundreds of herder families were left without their means of existence.

Nomadic herders are most vulnerable to natural disasters as they pasture their cattle on the vast open steppe all year round. Winter is the hardest time for both animals and herders, bringing a shortage of grass, snow blizzards and sudden temperature drops, and threatening to decimate the cattle.

This explains why, in the first moon of the winter season, old herders climb to the mountain tops to observe and interpret signs of nature which will signal the weather during the coming winter.

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