Kars Weather & Climate Guide 2026

Kars blends tsarist Russian architecture with Caucasian highland culture and millennia of Armenian, Byzantine, and Ottoman history. The highlight for most visitors is the Ani Ruins — a haunting city of stone churches, mosques, and palaces stranded on a plateau above the Arpaçay River gorge. Back in Kars city, the castle above the Kars River gives sweeping views, the Kümbet Mosque (a 10th-century Armenian church) stands near the town centre, and the evening food scene rewards anyone who seeks out kaz (goose) stew and aged gravyer cheese. The city is small enough to walk across in 20 minutes yet rich enough to fill three days.

Kars has a harsh continental climate driven by its location on the northeastern Anatolian plateau at 1,768 metres elevation. Winters are long, extremely cold, and snowy — temperatures frequently drop below −20 °C from December through February, occasionally reaching −30 °C. Summers are short and warm, with July and August averaging 20–25 °C during the day. Spring and autumn are brief transition seasons. Annual rainfall is moderate (~550 mm), much of it falling as snow. The Sarıkamış area southwest of Kars receives particularly heavy snowfall, sustaining one of Turkey's best ski resorts.