Podgorica is the capital and largest city of Montenegro. The city was known as Titograd between 1946 and 1992 — in the period that Montenegro formed, as the Socialist Republic of Montenegro, part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) — in honour of Marshal Josip Broz Tito.
Podgorica Municipality covers 10.4% of Montenegro's territory and is home to 29.9% of the country's population. It is the nation's administrative center and its economic, cultural, and educational focus.
Podgorica is located in central Montenegro. The area is crossed with rivers and the city itself is only 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) north of Lake Skadar. The Morača and Ribnica rivers flow through the city, while the Zeta, Cijevna, Sitnica and Mareza flow nearby. Morača is the largest river in the city, being 70 m or 230 ft wide near downtown, and having carved a 20 m or 66 ft deep canyon for the length of its course through the city. Except for the Morača and Zeta, other rivers have an appearance of small creeks. The richness in bodies of water is a major feature of the city.
In contrast to most of Montenegro, Podgorica lies in a mainly flat area at the northern end of the Zeta plain, at an elevation of 40 m (130 ft). The only exceptions are hills which overlook the city. The most significant is 130.3 m (427 ft) high Gorica Hill, city's namesake, which rises above the city centre. The other hills include Malo brdo ("little hill", 205.4 m or 674 ft), Velje brdo ("big hill", 283 m or 928 ft), Ljubović (101 m or 331 ft) and Dajbapska gora (172 m or 564 ft). Podgorica city proper has an area of 108 square kilometres (42 sq mi), while actual urbanized area is much smaller.
Under the Köppen climate classification, Podgorica has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa instead of Csa), since there is only one summer month with less than 40 millimeters (1.6 in) of precipitation, with summer highs around 30 °C (86 °F) and winter highs around 10 °C (50 °F). Although the city is only some 35 km (22 mi) north of the Adriatic Sea, an arm of the Mediterranean, Rumija mountain acts as a natural Dinaric Alps barrier, separating Skadar Lake basin and Podgorica area from the sea, thus limiting temperate maritime influence on the local climate.
The mean annual rainfall is 1,659 mm (65.3 in), making Podgorica by far wettest capital in Europe, Ljubljana being second with 1,362 mm (53.6 in). The temperature exceeds 25 °C (77 °F) on about 135 days each year and the median daily temperature is 15.6 °C (60.1 °F). The number of rainy days is about 120, and those with a strong wind around 60. An occasional strong northerly wind influences the climate in the winter, with a wind chill effect lowering the perceived temperature by a few degrees.
The all-time maximum snowfall record was beaten on 11 February 2012, when 58 cm (23 in) of snowfall were measured. Before that, the biggest snowfall in Podgorica was in 1954, when 52 cm (20 in) of snowfall was recorded. Maximum temperature was recorded on 24 August 2007, at 44.8 °C (112.6 °F), while all time minimum was −9.7 °C (14.5 °F), on 4 February 1956.
