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Russia RussiaFranz Josef LandIsland

Graham Bell Island

1,639 km² rising to 509 m out of the Barents Sea.

When to go

Graham Bell Island seen from space, cut out from the sea (Sentinel-2)
N 10 km

Satellite: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX (CC BY 4.0). Outline and points © OpenStreetMap contributors / Natural Earth. North up.

In numbers

1,639km²

Area

195km

Coastline

509m

Highest point

0

People

0°C

Warmest sea

August

715km

To the mainland

When to go to Graham Bell Island

Good all year round.

The sea is warmest in August (0 °C) and coolest in January (-2 °C). The water never reaches 21 °C: bring a wetsuit.

Sea temperature (the water level) Air: night low to afternoon high Wet days

Averages 1991–2020. Sea: NOAA OISST, the water within 35 km of the coast. Air, rain and sun: NASA POWER. Best months weigh warm afternoons (23–30 °C), sea of 24 °C or more and few wet days.

Island in Franz Josef archipelago

Graham Bell Island is an island in Russia. It belongs to Franz Josef Land. It covers 1,639 km², with 195 km of coastline. Its highest point rises to 509 m. Nobody lives on it. The nearest mainland is 715 km away.

Read more on Wikipedia

Getting there

  • 715 km from the mainlanddistance to the nearest continental coast

Plan the trip

Ferries, stays and things to do

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Graham Bell Island in our other atlases

Everything Coastya, Peakyas, Lakeyas and Cascadyas know about what lies inside Graham Bell Island, each with its own numbers.

  • 2lakesLakeyas
  • Largest lake

    1.7km²

    Melkoe

    according to Lakeyas

2 lakes

on Lakeyas, the lake atlas

  1. Melkoe1.7km²
  2. Severnoye Ozero0.20km²

Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

The shape of the land.

On average the island stands 167 m above the sea. 60 % of it is below 200 m.

  • 37 %0–50 m
  • 23 %50–200 m
  • 40 %200–500 m
  • <1 %500–1,000 m

Share of the island's area in each altitude band, from the Copernicus DEM (30 m, read at 30–240 m on large islands).

Size, for real

Next to islands you may know.

Graham Bell Island1,639 km²
Tenerife2,038 km²
Long Island3,529 km²

50 km

All outlines drawn to the same scale (Natural Earth and OpenStreetMap).

Month by month

The weather on the island.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Afternoon high (°C)-14-14-16-12-6-100-1-5-10-13
Night low (°C)-19-19-20-16-8-20-1-3-8-14-17
Sea (°C)-2-2-2-2-2-1000-1-1-2
Rain (mm)302830252434405352443332
Wet days1089878111415141211
Sun h/day—1.65.711.413.111.78.84.21.90.7——
Wind (km/h)252422211818181922242425

Averages 1991–2020 for the ~55 km NASA POWER cell over the island; the sea from NOAA OISST.

Recent years

Warmer and cooler years at sea.

Each month's sea temperature compared with its 1991–2020 average, in degrees.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2020−0.1±0.0±0.0−0.2−0.2−0.6−0.9+1.2+1.5+0.2±0.0−0.1
2021±0.0−0.1±0.0−0.2−0.2−0.4−0.8+0.1−0.1±0.0−0.3−0.2
2022−0.1±0.0±0.0−0.2−0.2−0.4−0.4−0.4−1.1−0.4−0.3−0.1
2023±0.0±0.0−0.1−0.2−0.2−0.2−1.1−1.5−1.2−0.7−0.3−0.1
2024−0.1±0.0−0.1−0.1−0.2−0.6−0.8+0.1−0.2−0.2±0.0−0.1
2025−0.1±0.0±0.0±0.0±0.0−0.3±0.0+2.4+1.6+1.1+0.2+0.1

+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual

About these numbers

Names, area, populationWikidata (Q1465918) · CC0
Outline© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
Sea temperatureNOAA OISST v2.1 · 1991–2020
ClimateNASA POWER · 1991–2020
Relief, 3D modelCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Beaches, ports, lighthouses, trails© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
TownsGeoNames · CC BY 4.0
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Beaches, mountains, lakes and waterfallsLakeyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES (Messager et al. 2016) · CC BY 4.0, LakeTEMP (Korver et al. 2024) · CC BY 4.0

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.

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