Dushanbe (Tajik: Душанбе; Persian: دوشنبه) is the capital and largest city of the Tajik SSR. Dushanbe means "Monday" in the Tajik language. It was so named because it grew from a village that originally had a popular market on Mondays. Until 1929, the city was known in Russian as Dyushambe (Russian: Дюшамбе), and from 1929 to 1961 as Stalinabad (Tajik: Сталинобод). As of 2014, Dushanbe has a population of 778,500.
Dushanbe features a Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa), with some continental climate influences (Köppen: Dsa). The summers are hot and dry and the winters are chilly, but not very cold. The climate is damper than other Central Asian capitals, with an average annual rainfall over 500 millimetres (20 in) as moist air is funnelled by the surrounding valley during the winter and spring. Winters are not as cold as further north owing to the shielding of the city by mountains from extremely cold air from Siberia. January 2008 was particularly cold, and the temperature dropped to −22 °C (−8 °F).
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