Moscow heat breaks 130-year record
Posted by feww on July 27, 2010
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Smog-covered Moscow swelters in hottest day since records began 130 years ago, as temperatures reach 37.4 ºC (99.3 ºF)
People walk along Red Square, with St. Basil’s Cathedral seen through heavy smog caused by peat fires in out-of-city forests, in Moscow, July 26, 2010.
Credit: REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin. Image may be subject to copyright.
“The all-time record has been broken, we have never recorded a day this hot before,” said Gennady Yeliseyev, deputy head of Russia’s state weather agency. “The previous high of 36.8 degrees Celsius was recorded on August 7, 1920, he said.” Reuters reported.
“The new record could be broken by Wednesday,” he added.
“Muscovites will have to inhale smoke for another two to two and a half months,” said Alexei Yaroshenko, head of the forest program at Greenpeace Russia. “He said the smoke could eclipse the worst smog registered in Moscow, in 1872 and 1837.”
Some 34 peat fires and 26 forest fires burning in the area surrounding Moscow, covering 59 hectares (145 acres), the emergencies ministry said, Reuters reported .
As of July 22, severe drought had destroyed crops over 100,000 square kilometers (38,600 square miles), an area larger than Portugal, the Agriculture Ministry said.
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