Yumen City
| Yumen 玉门 | |
|---|---|
| County-level city | |
玉门市 | |
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| Coordinates: 39°50′N 97°34′E / 39.833°N 97.567°ECoordinates: 39°50′N 97°34′E / 39.833°N 97.567°E | |
| Country | People's Republic of China |
| Province | Gansu |
| Prefecture-level city | Jiuquan |
| Elevation | 1,507 m (4,944 ft) |
| Time zone | China Standard (UTC+8) |
| Postal code | 735200 |
| Area code(s) | 0937 |
Yumen (simplified Chinese: 玉门; traditional Chinese: 玉門; pinyin: Yùmén, literally, "Jade Gate,") is a city in western Gansu province, China. It is a county-level city with a population of 116,194 (2000), and is part of Jiuquan "prefecture-level city" (a multi-county administrative unit). It is located on the Silk Road and is best known for its oil production.
It is not the same place as the famous Yumen Guan or Jade Gate frontier-pass of ancient times, the entrance to the old Silk Roads, which was situated not far to the west of Dunhuang. Although both Yumen City and Yumen Gate are within Jiuquan, the latter is some 400 kilometres (250 mi) to the west from the former.
Geography and climate
Yumen has a cold desert climate (Köppen BWk), with an annual total precipitation of 67 millimetres (2.64 in), the majority of which occurs in summer. Winters are long and cold, with a 24-hour average temperature of −9.8 °C (14.4 °F) in January, while summers are very warm, with a July average of 21.7 °C (71.1 °F); the annual mean is 7.13 °C (44.8 °F). The diurnal temperature variation reaches or exceeds 15 °C (27 °F) for much of the year. There are 3,214 hours of bright sunshine annually, and no month sees less than 65% of the possible total.
| Climate data for Yumen (1971−2000) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | −2.8 (27) |
1.7 (35.1) |
9.0 (48.2) |
17.5 (63.5) |
23.3 (73.9) |
26.9 (80.4) |
28.6 (83.5) |
27.9 (82.2) |
23.0 (73.4) |
15.2 (59.4) |
5.8 (42.4) |
−1.2 (29.8) |
14.58 (58.23) |
| Average low °C (°F) | −15.4 (4.3) |
−12.2 (10) |
−5.5 (22.1) |
1.8 (35.2) |
7.6 (45.7) |
11.9 (53.4) |
14.0 (57.2) |
12.8 (55) |
7.5 (45.5) |
0.5 (32.9) |
−6.7 (19.9) |
−13 (9) |
0.28 (32.5) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 1.0 (0.039) |
1.3 (0.051) |
4.1 (0.161) |
4.3 (0.169) |
6.7 (0.264) |
12.9 (0.508) |
13.9 (0.547) |
12.5 (0.492) |
4.8 (0.189) |
2.1 (0.083) |
2.1 (0.083) |
1.1 (0.043) |
66.8 (2.629) |
| Avg. precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 1.8 | 1.4 | 2.3 | 2.3 | 2.4 | 5.0 | 5.8 | 4.6 | 1.9 | 1.1 | 1.9 | 2.3 | 32.8 |
| % humidity | 53 | 42 | 35 | 31 | 31 | 41 | 47 | 45 | 41 | 40 | 45 | 54 | 42.1 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 221.7 | 214.1 | 248.5 | 274.8 | 314.5 | 312.0 | 311.0 | 306.7 | 292.4 | 276.2 | 229.7 | 212.0 | 3,213.6 |
| Percent possible sunshine | 75 | 72 | 67 | 69 | 71 | 70 | 68 | 72 | 78 | 80 | 77 | 73 | 72.7 |
| Source: China Meteorological Administration | |||||||||||||
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