# Gangca County

Gangca County (Tibetan: རྐང་ཚ་རྫོང; Chinese: 刚察县) is a county of northeastern Qinghai province, China, on the northern shore of Qinghai Lake. It is under the administration of Haibei Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

## Administrative divisions

Gangca County is made up of 2 towns and 3 townships:
| Name | Simplified Chinese | Hanyu Pinyin | Tibetan | Wylie | Administrative division code |
| Towns ||||||
| Shaliuhe Town (Omqu Town) | 沙柳河镇 | Shāliǔhé Zhèn | འོམ་ཆུ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | 'om chu grong rdal | 632224100 |
| Hairgi Town (Baigê Town, Ha'ergai Town) | 哈尔盖镇 | Hā'ěrgài Zhèn | དཔལ་དགེ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | dpal dge grong rdal | 632224101 |
| Townships ||||||
| Ih Ulan Township (Yugar'omlung Township, Yikewulan Township) | 伊克乌兰乡 | Yīkèwūlán Xiāng | གཡུ་དཀར་འོམ་ལུང་ཞང་། | g.yu dkar ʼom lung zhang | 632224200 |
| Qonj Township (Kyoinkyi Township, Quanji Township) | 泉吉乡 | Quánjí Xiāng | ཁྱོན་འཁྱིལ་ཞང་། | khyon 'khyil zhang | 632224201 |
| Jirmeng Township (Gyimoin Township, Ji'ermeng Township) | 吉尔孟乡 | Jí'ěrmèng Xiāng | སྐྱིད་སྨོན་ཞང་། | skyid smon zhang | 632224202 |

## Geography and climate

With an elevation of around 3,300 metres (10,800 ft), Gangca County has an alpine subarctic climate (Köppen Dwc), with long, very cold, dry, and sunny winters, and short, rainy, mild summers. Average low temperatures are below freezing from late September to mid May; however, due to the wide diurnal temperature variation, the average high is above freezing from March to November inclusive. Despite frequent rain during summer, when a majority of days sees rain, no month has less than 55% of possible sunshine; with monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 56% in June to 83% in November, the county seat receives 3,012 hours of bright sunshine annually. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from −13.5 °C (7.7 °F) in January to 10.9 °C (51.6 °F) in July, while the annual mean is −0.32 °C (31.4 °F). Over 80% of the annual precipitation of 379 mm (14.9 in) is delivered from June to September.
Climate data for Gangca, elevation 3,302 m (10,833 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1971–2010) :
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 4.6 (40.3) | 7.9 (46.2) | 13.2 (55.8) | 23.4 (74.1) | 21.5 (70.7) | 22.1 (71.8) | 27.5 (81.5) | 25.1 (77.2) | 21.6 (70.9) | 17.9 (64.2) | 9.4 (48.9) | 6.6 (43.9) | 27.5 (81.5) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | −4.5 (23.9) | −1.0 (30.2) | 3.7 (38.7) | 8.9 (48.0) | 12.3 (54.1) | 15.0 (59.0) | 17.4 (63.3) | 17.1 (62.8) | 13.4 (56.1) | 8.3 (46.9) | 2.7 (36.9) | −2.1 (28.2) | 7.6 (45.7) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −12.8 (9.0) | −9.3 (15.3) | −4.2 (24.4) | 1.8 (35.2) | 5.8 (42.4) | 9.2 (48.6) | 11.7 (53.1) | 11.1 (52.0) | 7.0 (44.6) | 0.8 (33.4) | −5.6 (21.9) | −10.6 (12.9) | 0.4 (32.7) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −19.1 (−2.4) | −15.9 (3.4) | −10.6 (12.9) | −4.5 (23.9) | 0.1 (32.2) | 4.0 (39.2) | 6.7 (44.1) | 6.2 (43.2) | 2.4 (36.3) | −4.4 (24.1) | −11.5 (11.3) | −16.7 (1.9) | −5.3 (22.5) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −31.3 (−24.3) | −29.5 (−21.1) | −23.3 (−9.9) | −15.4 (4.3) | −11.1 (12.0) | −6.6 (20.1) | −1.6 (29.1) | −3.2 (26.2) | −7.1 (19.2) | −17.4 (0.7) | −23.6 (−10.5) | −29.3 (−20.7) | −31.3 (−24.3) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 1.4 (0.06) | 2.3 (0.09) | 6.0 (0.24) | 13.1 (0.52) | 39.8 (1.57) | 74.7 (2.94) | 95.0 (3.74) | 105.0 (4.13) | 55.8 (2.20) | 13.4 (0.53) | 2.2 (0.09) | 0.6 (0.02) | 409.3 (16.13) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 2.5 | 2.8 | 4.5 | 6.9 | 11.6 | 17.5 | 18.0 | 17.4 | 14.3 | 6.1 | 1.6 | 1.1 | 104.3 |
| Average snowy days | 3.7 | 3.7 | 6.9 | 9.4 | 8.3 | 1.4 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 2.6 | 7.1 | 2.7 | 2.2 | 48.8 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 46 | 43 | 43 | 47 | 55 | 63 | 67 | 69 | 69 | 57 | 45 | 44 | 54 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 238.4 | 230.3 | 259.2 | 256.6 | 256.5 | 227.1 | 240.3 | 238.3 | 218.3 | 255.7 | 247.4 | 240.7 | 2,908.8 |
| Percent possible sunshine | 77 | 75 | 69 | 65 | 58 | 52 | 54 | 57 | 59 | 75 | 82 | 81 | 67 |
| Source 1: China Meteorological Administrationall-time extreme temperature ||||||||||||||
| Source 2: Weather China ||||||||||||||

## Transport

* China National Highway 315