As expected, July 2019 became the hottest month throughout the entire history of meteorological observations across most parts of Lebap velayat and in select districts of Mary and Dashoguz velayat, which make up about the fifth of Turkmenistan’s territory.
Extremely hot weather was recorded in the central, northern (Zaunguz) and the south-eastern parts of the Karakum Desert.
According to the website “Weather and climate”, a new average monthly record of 33,6 degrees Celsius was set in Ashgabat in July.
The maximum temperature this year was recorded on 16 July with the outside air temperature reaching +43,7°C.
In Turkmenabat (formerly, Chardjou) the average monthly temperature was +34 degrees Celsius, which is 0,3 degrees higher than the last year’s record.
On 21 July the thermometer registered the outside temperature +45,3 degrees in the shade.
In Dashoguz the average monthly temperature in July equaled +32,5°C, which is only 0,4 degrees lower than the last year’s record.
At midday on 20 July the temperature rose up to +46,4 °C.
When trying to find out the weather forecast in Mary, it transpired that for some reason this city is not represented on the website.It appears that because of the input error the city of Mary is specified as unknown.
In this case, the average temperature in Mary reached +33,4 degrees, which is 0,1 degrees higher than the last year’s record.
It should be emphasized, however, that the website publishes the data only starting from 2010.The maximum temperature of +46,4°C was recorded on 21 July.
The inhabitants of the coastal city of Turkmenbashi had a bit more luck this year.The average monthly temperature in July was quite low 27,5 degrees, which is almost 2,5 degrees lower than the previous month and 5 degrees lower than the last year’s record, when the average monthly temperature was recorded at 32,5 degrees.
The highest temperature throughout the month was recorded at +38,9°C on 22 July.
The maximum temperature in July was recorded in Yerbent on 19 July with the outside temperature in the shade peaking at +47,8 degrees!
The country’s residents are having a hard time trying to endure the heat.Correspondents of “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” report that the streets are now deserted.
Nobody goes out unless necessary.As “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” have repeatedly reported that the biggest problem is that buses are not equipped with air conditioners.During rush hours, when public buses are overcrowded, the trip becomes an endurance test.
People often faint in public transport.
No days-off related to heat waves are envisaged for public sector employees. Public utilities staff sweep the street under the burning sun like in any other day. Industrial climbers who clean the windows of various ministries as well as elite residential houses complain that they have to work at the hottest time of the day.
One of them told the correspondent of “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” that they tried to make an agreement with the administration to make changes in their work schedule to be allowed to work in the evenings or at night.
The bosses were not against but customers turned down the proposal on the grounds that it is forbidden the climb the buildings of ministries in the dark.According to the climber, the employees of the agency located in the building need to make money contributions for the window washing services despite the fact that the money should be allocated from the budget.
It is still forbidden to install air conditioners of the facades of the buildings which can be seen from the city’s main streets.However, residents find ways to hide them.
The external part of an air conditioner is installed on the floor of balconies or entrance halls.If it is not possible, many residents buy portable air conditioners which do not require an external block.
However, even many types of air conditioners are unable to endure the Turkmen heat.A household appliance repair specialist said that their company fails to handle the influx of customers with broken air conditioners.
According to him, the number of customers is expected to double compared to last year and almost all customers have condensers broken on the external block of the air conditioning system.
The equipment is incapable of enduring lengthy сcontinuous operation under extremely high temperatures.It costs 160 manats to replace an air-conditioning condenser.