Poland Geography & Climate

Poland covers about 313,000 square kilometres in the middle of the North European Plain, which is why it has been crossed by so many armies — its borders have almost no natural defences and have moved repeatedly.

The plain

Most of the country is lowland, averaging under two hundred metres, glacial in origin and crossed by two great rivers: the Vistula, the longest, running through Kraków and Warsaw to Gdańsk, and the Oder along the western border. The soil is good and the country is heavily farmed.

The north

A Baltic coastline of five hundred kilometres with sand beaches, dunes and the Hel peninsula. Behind it, the glacial lake districts — Masuria alone has some two thousand lakes linked into a navigable system, and the Elbląg Canal moves boats overland on rail cradles.

The south

The land rises to the Sudetes on the Czech border and the Carpathians in the south-east. The Tatras, a small high range shared with Slovakia, reach 2,499 metres at Rysy and are genuinely alpine, with corrie lakes, scree and a short season.

Woodland and wild bison

Nearly a third of Poland is wooded. Białowieża, on the Belarusian border, is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the best-preserved remnant of the primeval lowland forest that once covered the whole region — parts of it have never been logged.

Underground

The salt at Wieliczka has been mined since the thirteenth century, leaving chapels, chambers and carvings hundreds of metres down. Silesian coal built the industrial south and is now being wound down.

Poland sits between maritime and continental influences, which makes its weather variable and its seasons clearly marked. The further east you go, the more continental it becomes.

Winter

December to February averages around freezing, colder in the east and the mountains, with snow cover for several weeks most years and longer in the south-east. Cold snaps below −15°C occur. Days are short — dark by four in December.

Summer

June to August is warm, generally 20 to 27°C, with heatwaves above 30°C increasingly common. This is also the wettest part of the year: summer rain arrives as thunderstorms rather than drizzle, and July is typically the wettest month.

Spring and autumn

Both are short. Spring arrives late and fast in April; autumn is often the more settled of the two, with a spell of warm, clear weather in September known here as the golden Polish autumn.

The mountains

The Tatras have an alpine climate: snow from November into May at altitude, a short summer season, and weather that changes within an hour. The halny, a warm dry föhn wind falling off the Tatras, can raise temperatures sharply, bring gales and is blamed locally for headaches.

The coast

The Baltic moderates the north, keeping winters milder and summers cooler than inland. The sea rarely exceeds 20°C, which does not deter anybody in August.

Smog

Winter air quality in Kraków, Silesia and smaller towns burning coal for heating has been among the worst in Europe. It has improved with regulation but remains a genuine consideration on still, cold days.