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Slovak Republic - Climate

Slovakia's climate is variable and frequently harsh. Slovakia's climate is continental - the Slovak summers are warm, however winters are cold, cloudy and humid. The lowlands are dry and warm with stable character of weather, while the mountains are wetter and colder with changeable weather. The warmest part of Slovakia is the Podunajská nížina lowland in contrast to the coldest part of the country, the Tatras. The mean annual temperature in the Podunajská nížina lowland is more than +10 °C while in the Tatras it drops below -3 °C. The warmest and the coldest months are July and January respectively. Tropical days, when the air temperature exceeds 30 °C during the day and does not decrease below 20 °C in the night, occur in summer months. In some winters the temperature drops even below -20 °C.

The driest area of Slovakia is the Podunajská nížina lowland with the annual precipitation total of 500-600 mm. The Tatras in turn and its valleys in particular are the wettest parts of the country where the same parameter amounts to more than 2,000 mm a year, though mostly in the form of snow. Snowing in summer is in no way unusual in the Tatras and the snow cover in higher altitude keeps from November to May. The rainiest months are June and July and the driest months are those of autumn.

As a result of global climate changes, Slovakia's climate may become more similar to that of the Balkan countries in years to come, climatologist Pavel Faško told a press conference on 12 December 2011, as reported by the TASR newswire. "One manifestation will definitely be that there'll be more heat waves," said Faško, who works at the Slovak Hydro-Meteorological Institute (SHMÚ), as quoted by TASR. The climatologist said that because Slovakia is a landlocked country, the air above it is subject to overheating in summer. Unless it is replaced by colder and more humid air, there may be up to 10-day spells where the thermometer reaches around 35 degrees C in southern Slovakia. This would bring Slovakia's climate on par with that in northern parts of Serbia, Bulgaria and Croatia, and to the weather in southern Hungary.