Moscow struggles to cope as mercury soars

[IndianaGreen]

Moscow struggles to cope as mercury soars

By Conor Humphries, Reuters, in Moscow

Tuesday, 27 July 2010

Moscow sweltered through its hottest day since records began 130 years ago yesterday, as temperatures hit 37.4C to spark peat fires that blanketed the city in smog.

A heatwave has engulfed central parts of European Russia and Siberia since June, destroying crops covering an area the size of Portugal. Green groups, including Greenpeace, say the temperatures are evidence of global warming.

"The all-time record has been broken, we have never recorded a day this hot before," said Gennady Yeliseyev, of Russia's state weather agency. The previous high of 36.8C was recorded on 7 August 1920, he said. "The new record could be broken by Wednesday," he said. Muscovites have struggled to deal with the heat, with most electronics retailers selling out of fans and air conditioners, and many cafes running out of ice and cold beer by early afternoon.

Women were using golf umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun on Red Square. Bloggers have begun to complain of men travelling with bare torsos on the metro.

"This summer is very hard, physically and emotionally," said accountant Marina Veselkova, cooling off by a fountain near the Bolshoi Theatre after sending her children away to relatives.

"It's very bad," said Alexander, a courier. "I go to the beach at the weekends but it's difficult to swim because the water is so hot."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/moscow-struggles-to-cope-as-mercury-soars-2036200.html

Related LBN thread by Elmore Furth:

Heat wave in Moscow near to reach absolute record

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=4477523

[msongs]

1. wow that's only 99 F and they are in crisis? nt

[IndianaGreen]

2. For Moscow, that's the hottest temperatures in 130 years

of record keeping.

[depakid]

3. Lows of 77 farenheit

and you can bet that almost no one has AC.

[awoke_in_2003]

4. there are a lot of places in the world...

where air conditioning is rare. Moscows biggest problem is usually trying to keep people warm, not cool.

[Diclotican]

5. IndianaGreen

IndianaGreen

That is hot, by all means.. allmoust 35 degres Celscius is HOT in that area of the world, Moskow are usaly not to hot, in the winter, it is the opposite that is the fact, the Cs can drop to below -30 C and be there for at least a couple of mounts... So +34 and up, is hot....

Hopefully the weather would calm down a little, as the summer proress, but sometimes the "russian summer" tend to be hot, for a long time... (hopefully some of it, wil came westwoard to Sweden and Norway so we can get some decent summer weather again... Have been raining for weeks now.... Even tho, it have been pleasent climate, with +18-23 C most days..

Diclotican

[Lucky Luciano]

6. Heard 2000 people drowned trying to keep cool (most were plastered drunk)

Read that somewhere on Bloomberg.