Vinnytsia, Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine
![Kozytskij Street [Courtesy of Wikimedia.org]](./images/Kozytskij_street.jpg "Kozytskij Street [Courtesy of Wikimedia.org]")
![Vinnytsia [Courtesy of Urbanrail.net]](./images/Vinnytsia-Tram2.jpg "Vinnytsia [Courtesy of Urbanrail.net]")
Vinnytsia is the administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast and the largest city
in the historic region of Podillia. Administratively, it is incorporated as a town of oblast significance. It also serves as an administrative
center of Vinnytsia Raion, one of the 27 districts of Vinnytsia Oblast, though it is not a part of the district.
Population: 372,484 (2015 est.)
The city's roots date back to the Middle Ages and it was under Polish control for centuries until the Russian
Empire annexed it in 1793. During 1930s and early 1940s the city was the site of massacres, first during Stalin's
purges and then during the Holocaust in Ukraine and the Nazi occupation. A Cold War-era airbase was located near
the city.
The name of Vinnytsia appeared for the first time in 1363. It is assumed that the name is derived from the old Slavic word "Vino", meaning "given as a gift." This name can be explained by the fact that the Vinnytsia and surrounding land were captured by Lithuanian Duke Algirdas in the 14th century, and then, they were given as a gift to his nephews.
Location
Vinnytsia is a city in west-central Ukraine, located on the banks of the Southern Bug. It is located about 260 km (160 mi) southwest of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, 429 km (267 mi) north-northwest of the Black Sea port city of Odessa, and 369 km (229 mi) east of Lviv. It is the administrative center of the Vinnytsia Oblast (province), as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Vinnytsia Raion (district) within the oblast. The city itself is directly subordinated to the oblast.
Climate
The town has a warm-summer humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb), similar to northern Pennsylvania however with the precipitation of the Great Plains, summers are warm, hardly hot and humid and winters are cold.[3][4]
A long lasting warm summer with a sufficient quantity of moisture and a comparatively short winter is characteristic of Vinnytsia. The average temperature in January is -5.8 °C (21.6 °F) and 18.3 °C (64.9 °F) in July. The average annual precipitation is 638 mm (25 in).
Over the course of a year there are around 6–9 days when snowstorms occur, 37–60 days when mists occur during the cold period, and 3–5 days when thunderstorms with hail occur.
From Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, “Vinnytsia”