Large swaths of Mongolia are enduring a sharp temperature drop accompanied by unusually early snowfall.

As of Thursday morning, northern provinces like Khuvsgul, Selenge, Bulgan, Orkhon, and Darkhan-Uul, along with western provinces Zavkhan and Khovd, and central provinces Tuv, Arkhangai, and Uvurkhangai, have reported healthy accumulations of September snow, according to the National Agency for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring.

Plunging Arctic air has crashed thermometers to below freezing across much of the country.

The sudden freeze has sparked concerns over potential impacts on farming, particularly nomadic herding--a key economic activity in the country. These conditions mark an abrupt end to summer and a skipping of fall straight into winter.

As well-documented (link below), winters in Mongolia are trending colder and snowier.

Well over 2 million animals froze-to-death in early-2024 alone as the East Asian nation battled one of its coldest winters on record--as it did last year, and the year before that--and its snowiest since 1975.

At the start of February, the United Nations warned that the ongoing “dzud” (an extreme winter cold event) had reached a “critical level” with over 90% of Mongolia impacted.

Government data show that these “dzudz” are increasing with 6 occurring during the past 10 winters. Recent research found that between 1940 and 2015 official dzud declarations were made twice a decade; in recent years however, these freezing episodes have increased in both frequency and intensity with them now playing out annually.
https://electroverse.substack.com/p/big-freeze-and-early-snows-in-mongolia