Saskylakh (russian: Саскылах; sah, Сааскылаах, ''Saaskılaax'') is a

rural locality In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...

(a '' selo'') and the

administrative center An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, L ...

Anabarsky District Anabarsky District (russian: Анаба́рский улу́с; sah, Анаабыр улууһа, ''Anaabyr uluuha'', ) is an administrativeConstitution of the Sakha Republic, Article 45 and municipalLaw #172-Z #351-III district ( raion, or ...

in the Sakha Republic,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

.''Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Divisions of the Sakha Republic'' Its population as of the 2010 Census was 2,317, up from 1,985 recorded during the 2002 Census and further up from 1,856 recorded during the 1989 Census.

Geography

Saskylakh is located on the right bank of the

Anabar River The Anabar ( rus, Анабар, r=Anabar, in its upper course: Большая Куонамка ''Bolshaya Kuonamka''; sah, Анаабыр, translit=Anaabyr) is a river in Sakha, Russia. It is long ( counting the long Bolshaya Kuonamka ("Big Kuo ...

, downstream from the confluence with the

Udya The Udya or Udzha (russian: Удя or Уджа; sah, Удьаа) is a river in Yakutia (Sakha Republic), Russia. It is a right tributary of the Anabar with a length of . Its drainage basin area is . The river flows north of the Arctic Circ ...

. It is one of the main ports in the river. Google Earth

History

It was founded in 1930 as a part of Soviet efforts to settle the nomadic

Yakuts The Yakuts, or the Sakha ( sah, саха, ; , ), are a Turkic ethnic group who mainly live in the Republic of Sakha in the Russian Federation, with some extending to the Amur, Magadan, Sakhalin regions, and the Taymyr and Evenk Districts ...

Evenks The Evenks (also spelled Ewenki or Evenki based on their endonym )Autonym: (); russian: Эвенки (); (); formerly known as Tungus or Tunguz; mn, Хамниган () or Aiwenji () are a Tungusic people of North Asia. In Russia, the Ev ...

, and

Dolgans Dolgans (; Dolgan: , , ( Sakha); Yakut: ) are an ethnic group who mostly inhabit Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. They are descended from several groups, particularly Evenks, one of the indigenous peoples of the Russian North. They adopted a T ...

who lived in the area.

Transportation

There are no year-round roads leading to Saskylakh, although there is a

winter road A winter road is a seasonal road only usable during the winter, i.e. it has to be re-built every year. This road typically runs over land and over frozen lakes, rivers, swamps, and sea ice.Proskin et al, 2011. Guidelines for the Construction an ...

which leads to

Olenyok Olenyok or Olenek may refer to: * Olenyok (river), a river in Russia * Olenyok (rural locality), a rural locality (a ''selo'') in the Sakha Republic, Russia *Olenyok Airport, an airport in the same rural locality *Olenyok Gulf The Olenyok Gulf, a ...

and then further south to

Udachny Udachny ( rus, Удачный, p=ʊˈdatɕnɨj, lit. ''successful'' or ''lucky''; sah, Удачнай, ''Udaçnay'') is a town in Mirninsky District of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located on the Markha River, from Mirny, the administrative ...

. In the opposite direction, the road also continues downstream along the Anabar to Yuryung-Khaya. There is also a small airport a few kilometers south.

Climate

Despite lying well inside the Arctic Circle, Saskylakh has a subarctic climate (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

''Dfc'')McKnight and Hess, pp. 232-235 with very short, mild summers and severely cold winters.

Precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hai ...

is moderate; it falls mostly as rain in summer and mainly as snow throughout the rest of the year. Summers get above due to warm spells of southerly winds, which has rendered an all-time record of whereas the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

to its north remains extremely chilly even when ice-free in summer. As a result, summers are highly variable. In winter, temperatures are more stable, with cold extremes not deviating much from the average lows. Brief spells of maritime air can bring temperatures a lot less cold, but there are still eight reliable months below freezing. There is also a strong

seasonal lag Seasonal lag is the phenomenon whereby the date of maximum average air temperature at a geographical location on a planet is delayed until some time after the date of maximum insolation (i.e. the summer solstice). This also applies to the minim ...

due to the late thawing of the ice pack to the north. As a result, May is still a winter month even with

midnight sun The midnight sun is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the summer months in places north of the Arctic Circle or south of the Antarctic Circle, when the Sun remains visible at the local midnight. When the midnight sun is seen in the Arctic, ...

References

Notes

Sources

*Official website of the Sakha Republic. ''Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Divisions of the Sakha Republic''
Anabarsky District
* * {{Authority control Rural localities in the Sakha Republic Road-inaccessible communities of the Sakha Republic North Siberian Lowland