Cape Lopatka ( ') is the southernmost point of

Kamchatka Peninsula The Kamchatka Peninsula (, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and western coastlines, respectively. Immediately offshore along the Pacific ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, with the rural locality of Semenovka at its southernmost point. Cape Lopatka lies about north of

Shumshu Shumshu (; ; ) is the easternmost and second-northernmost island of the Kuril Islands chain, which divides the Sea of Okhotsk from the northwest Pacific Ocean. The name of the island is derived from the Ainu language, meaning "good island". It i ...

, the northernmost island of the

Kuril Islands The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands are a volcanic archipelago administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the Russian Far East. The islands stretch approximately northeast from Hokkaido in Japan to Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, separating the ...

. Cape Lopatka also serves as the northernmost area of habitation by the

Ainu people The Ainu are an Indigenous peoples, indigenous ethnic group who reside in northern Japan and southeastern Russia, including Hokkaido and the Tōhoku region of Honshu, as well as the land surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk, such as Sakhalin, the Ku ...

. In 1737, Cape Lopatka's highest

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...

was recorded at , washing over the peninsula,Oracle Think Ques
tsunamis : case studies
Collected 3-Jul-2010. triggered by a 9.0-9.3 M_W earthquake.

Climate

In spite of its temperate latitude, the powerful

Oyashio Current The , also known as the Okhotsk Current or Kurile Current, is a cold subarctic ocean current that flows south and circulates counterclockwise in the western North Pacific Ocean. The waters of the Oyashio Current originate in the Arctic Ocean ...

on the western flank of the Aleutian Low gives Lopatka a chilly and very wet

polar climate The polar climate regions are characterized by a lack of warm summers but with varying winters. Every month a polar climate has an average temperature of less than . Regions with a polar climate cover more than 20% of the Earth's area. Most of ...

that borders extremely closely on the

subarctic The subarctic zone is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic, north of hemiboreal regions and covering much of Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the north of Fennoscandia, Northwestern Russia, Siberia, and the Cair ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''Dfc/ET''), for which it just qualifies due to its August means, which in low-lying areas would be expected only at latitudes about 20° or further north. Unlike typical polar climates, however, the winters are only moderately severe, and there is no permafrost since the mean annual temperature is around , whilst temperatures have never fallen below . However, the extreme winds make it feel much colder. Summers are mild but extraordinarily cloudy, with annual sunshine hours about 1,050 per year, which is comparable to

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

or the extremely foggy

Sichuan Basin The Sichuan Basin (), formerly transliterated as the Szechwan Basin, sometimes called the Red Basin, is a lowland region in southwestern China. It is surrounded by mountains on all sides and is drained by the upper Yangtze River and its tributar ...

. Sunshine is actually most likely in the wettest months of September and October, when the heavy rain removes the low-level fog, but clear days are extremely rare at any time of year. As of 2019, this is still yet to result in any high above .

References

Landforms of Kamchatka Krai Lopatka Ainu geography {{KamchatkaKrai-geo-stub