TERRITORIAL AND CLIMATIC ZONATION OF THE VOLOGDA OBLAST AND ITS PROSPECTS IN AGRICULTURE
Climatic conditions are one of the most important factors for efficiency of agricultural production that influence directly on field operations. Thus, the amount of temperatures and duration of frost-free period allow evaluating the potential possibility of cultivation one or another agricultural crop. Changes in global climate had an impact on the climatic conditions of the Vologda Oblast and influenced the agricultural conditions in the first instance. It is worth noting that the research on global evaluation of climatic conditions and climatic zonation of the Vologda Oblast are dated back to the previous century. The Arkhangelsk Weather Bureau introduced the most completed research of 1972. Evaluation of changed climatic conditions and formation of uniform territorial and climatic areas in the Vologda Oblast will let us estimate the potential climatic risks in agricultural production and, at the same time, increase the efficiency of measures of state support for Agro-Industry. According to the processing result of climatic data on 198 inhabited areas of the Vologda Oblast received by Yandex.Weather service, significant differences were identified in several indices of climatic conditions of the specific inhabited area. Thus, the maximum difference in amount of annual precipitation is equal to 315 mm per year; the duration of positive temperature period differs by 36 days when the difference of amount of average temperatures is more than 1000°С. Cluster analysis allowed forming eight uniform territorial and climatic areas in the Vologda Oblast. These areas were significantly different from each other, for instance, in the amount of average temperatures - by 805°С. Duration of frost-free period was more than 20 days with the slightly difference of the average indices of annual precipitation - 77 mm.