The climate of the Tatra Mountains
The climate of the Tatra Mountains is high-mountain and gets worse as the altitude increases. Temperature drops by 0.6 ° each 100 m elevation. July is the warmest in the Tatras (the average for Kasprowy Wierch is 7.5 °), the coldest - February (respectively - 8.6 °). Winter is long - in Zakopane it usually lasts from the end of November to the end of March, and at the Kasprowy level - from mid-October to early May. A shortened and not very clear summer suits her, lasting from. mid June to the last days of August. Spring is cool in the Tatras, autumn (especially important for tourists) - cheerful and relatively warm, especially high in the mountains (wg M. Orlicza, October is warmer than April in Zakopane by 1.8 °, on Łomnica by as much as 4.5 °). Winter temperature inversions are significant for the climate of the Tatra Mountains (the higher the warmer) and the attacks of winter in the middle of summer - harmful to vegetation and often resulting in accidents (snowfall sometimes lasts longer than a week).
Winds are frequent and strong in the Tatras. Of particular importance is the so-called. mountain wind, blowing from the South. and warming up as it falls into the Podtatrzański Trench. It destroys forests, in winter it melts snow, in addition, it has an adverse effect on nervous and heart-sick people. Unlike in the lowlands, the cloud cover is distributed in the Tatras. The maximum falls on the turn of May and June, and the minimum in the fall (October). There is some rainfall associated with it, the annual total of which for most of the Tatra Mountains is between 1200 and 1600 mm per year. In the area of high peaks it exceeds 1800 mm, the slopes facing west are clearly privileged locally. In the annual rainfall table, the maximum falls in June, minimum - in the lower parts of the mountains for the first half of winter, and in the top belt - in the fall (September October). Almost half of the precipitation in the Tatras takes the form of snow. "From the height of the glade Hala Gąsienicowa, no month is devoid of snowfall," says M.. Orlicz w r. 1962. Permanent snow cover lies at the level of Zakopane, approx. 3 months of the year, in the peak zone - 7 do 8 months.