Chumikan

Chumikan lies on the southern side of the Uda River delta, at the westernmost extremity of Uda Bay in the Sea of Okhotsk, which contains a number of small islands. The terrain surrounding the town is almost entirely mountainous except for the narrow river valley extending to the west. On the southern side rise the northern spurs of the Taikan Range, highest point {{convert|2370|m|sp=us}}.[http://mapn53.narod.ru/indexn53.html Topographic map N-53; M 1: 1,000,00]

The climate of Chumikan is subarctic (Köppen Dfc), with mild, wet summers and very cold dry winters which are only marginally moderated by the sea due to prevailing offshore flow from Siberia, although there is sufficient moderation that permafrost is discontinuous rather than continuous as in most of Siberia. Owing to the village's location near the sea, summers are markedly cooler and wetter than those of the inland territories, with the result that a different type of forest from the inland larch forest, dominated by Picea obovata, occurs. Chumikan is located at a similar latitude as Kaliningrad Oblast on the other side of the country, although being {{convert|11.2|C-change|F-change|1|disp=or}} colder over the year as a whole due to the combined influence of the Siberian High in winter and of the cold Sea of Okhotsk in summer.

{{Weather box|width = auto

|location=Chumikan

|metric first=yes

|single line=yes

|Jan record high C = −1.3

|Feb record high C = 0.0

|Mar record high C = 14.7

|Apr record high C = 21.0

|May record high C = 32.0

|Jun record high C = 37.0

|Jul record high C = 35.1

|Aug record high C = 32.2

|Sep record high C = 27.4

|Oct record high C = 19.3

|Nov record high C = 8.0

|Dec record high C = 0.0

|year record high C = 37.0

|Jan high C = −19.7

|Feb high C = −13.7

|Mar high C = −4.5

|Apr high C = 2.3

|May high C = 7.0

|Jun high C = 13.0

|Jul high C = 17.0

|Aug high C = 18.4

|Sep high C = 14.2

|Oct high C = 4.4

|Nov high C = −9.2

|Dec high C = −17.8

|year high C = 0.9

|Jan mean C = −22.4

|Feb mean C = −18.2

|Mar mean C = −10.3

|Apr mean C = −2.3

|May mean C = 2.7

|Jun mean C = 8.2

|Jul mean C = 12.6

|Aug mean C = 13.8

|Sep mean C = 9.6

|Oct mean C = 0.3

|Nov mean C = −12.2

|Dec mean C = −20.4

|year mean C = −3.3

|Jan low C = −25.1

|Feb low C = −22.8

|Mar low C = −16.8

|Apr low C = −7.6

|May low C = −1.1

|Jun low C = 3.8

|Jul low C = 9.0

|Aug low C = 9.8

|Sep low C = 5.1

|Oct low C = −3.9

|Nov low C = −15.6

|Dec low C = −23.3

|year low C = −7.5

|Jan record low C = −39.0

|Feb record low C = −39.0

|Mar record low C = −32.5

|Apr record low C = −24.4

|May record low C = −12.0

|Jun record low C = −4.0

|Jul record low C = −1.1

|Aug record low C = 0.0

|Sep record low C = −8.0

|Oct record low C = −19.0

|Nov record low C = −30.0

|Dec record low C = −38.6

|year record low C = −39.0

|Jan precipitation mm = 28.9

|Feb precipitation mm = 21.4

|Mar precipitation mm = 24.5

|Apr precipitation mm = 60.4

|May precipitation mm = 88.6

|Jun precipitation mm = 84.6

|Jul precipitation mm = 137.4

|Aug precipitation mm = 144.4

|Sep precipitation mm = 110.4

|Oct precipitation mm = 80.8

|Nov precipitation mm = 28.6

|Dec precipitation mm = 30.8

|Jan precipitation days = 5.0

|Feb precipitation days = 4.7

|Mar precipitation days = 5.7

|Apr precipitation days = 8.8

|May precipitation days = 10.4

|Jun precipitation days = 10.0

|Jul precipitation days = 11.6

|Aug precipitation days = 11.3

|Sep precipitation days = 9.7

|Oct precipitation days = 7.4

|Nov precipitation days = 5.4

|Dec precipitation days = 4.9

|unit precipitation days = 1.0 mm

|source 1=Сводные данные (in Russian){{cite web

|url=http://climatebase.ru/station/31286 |title= Чумикан, Хабаровский край, Российская федерация #31286}}

|date=October 2016

}}

It was founded in 1885 as a fishing port on the Sea of Okhotsk, and up to these days has never been made accessible by road,See [http://cor.edu.27.ru/catalog/res/d44be99b-5155-d79a-b44d-e1a08c21e0fe/view/ Welcome to Chumikan]{{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} even though the area had been a winter port for the Yakut and Evenki people for many years before Russians discovered it. Chumikan soon became a trading center for gold, which was discovered inland within a decade after founding.See Nature: international journal of science; volume 54 (1896); pp. 517-518 In the 1920s, after the gold was depleted, Chumikan became, along with other localities along the coast, a center of resistance to the October Revolution.

In the decades that followed, Chumikan's chief role was as a center for the extremely rich fisheries of the Sea of Okhotsk, but during the latter part of the Soviet era, there were efforts to develop major phosphorite reserves known to occur inland.See American Geographical Society of New York; Soviet Geography, Volume 23 (1982); p. 696 The dissolution of the Soviet Union meant that these efforts have largely disintegrated.

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Category:Rural localities in Khabarovsk Krai

Category:Ports and harbours of the Russian Pacific Coast

Category:Populated places established in 1885

Category:1885 establishments in the Russian Empire

Category:Road-inaccessible communities of Russia