Kaluga Oblast - Geography

Geography

Kaluga Oblast is located in the central part of the East European Plain. The Smolensk Highland (height—279 meters) lays in the western and north-western part of the oblast, while the Central Russian Highland - in the eastern part. The territory of the oblast is covered by hills, and in some parts by flat plains interspersed by numerous river valleys, hollows, and ravines.

From the north to the south, the territory of the oblast extends for more than 220 km from 53° 30' to 55° 30' N, and from west to the east – by 220 km. The territory of the oblast is 29,900 km².

Kaluga Oblast borders with Bryansk, Smolensk, Moscow, Tula, and Oryol Oblasts, as well as with Moscow (since 1 July 2012).

There are 2,045 rivers with a total length of 11,853 km, of which 256 have a length of more than 10 km each, with a total length of 7,638 km (including the Oka and the Desna), and 1,763 rivers and streams with a length of less than 10 km each, with a total length of 4,215 km. There are also 17 water reservoirs with a water storage capacity of 79 mln m³ (Lyudinovskoe — 30 mln m³, Kirovskoe-Verkhnee — 7.8 mln m³, Brynskoe — 14 mln m³, Yachenskoe — 5 mln m³, Milyatinskoe — 7.6 mln m³, Slobodskoe — 3.7 mln m³). Out of 473 ponds of common use, there are 213 ponds with a water storage capacity of up to 50,000 m3 equipped with basic discharge facilities. The main rivers are: the Oka, the Ugra, the Zhizdra, and the Bolva (all those rivers' names are of Lithuanian language origin).

The climate is moderately continental; the average temperature in January is - 9°C, the average temperature in July is + 17°C. The precipitation rate per annum is 650 mm. The vegetation period is 177–184 days.

Vegetation: mixed coniferous broad-leafed forests (birch, aspen, pine, fir, oak, alder, and lime).

Soil: derno-podzolic, moderate coal clay, clay sand, and sand.