Record heat in Russia. Moscow's highest temperatures in 120 years
Environment — di Andrea Barolini
An exceptional heatwave is hitting Russia. To find a June this hot in Moscow, you have to go back to 1901.
Record heat in Russia. Moscow's highest temperatures in 120 years
An exceptional heatwave is hitting Russia. To find a June this hot in Moscow, you have to go back to 1901.
Russia is experiencing an exceptional heatwave. The Moscow region is being hit particularly hard: the capital has recorded the highest temperatures in 120 years for the month of June. On Monday 21, thermometers in the city read 34.7 degrees Celsius, breaking a record that had stood since 1901. Forecasts for Thursday 24 and Friday 25 suggest temperatures could even exceed 35 degrees.
"Climate change is to blame"
The record was confirmed by Marina Makarova, a meteorologist at the Rosguidromet agency, who stated that phenomena of this kind are unquestionably caused by global warming: "The fault lies with global climate change," she explained.
Moscow has been hit by a historic heat wave this week, with temperatures reaching a 120-year record due to the effects of climate change, Russia's weather service said u.afp.com/U2Mv
The figures reached last Monday are not, moreover, far off Moscow's all-time record, which is just above 38 degrees, set in July 2010. At the time, a large swath of western Russia had to contend with an exceptional heatwave and severe wildfires.
Siberia's all-time record set in June 2020
Saint Petersburg, a city situated 600 kilometres further north, has also seen striking figures. Peaks of around 34 degrees had not been reached since 1998. Moreover, scientists consider Russia — and Siberia and the Arctic region in particular — to be especially vulnerable to climate change. In the northernmost part of Russian territory, the rate of warming is roughly twice the global average.
#Russia is hit by a #heatwave this week, with temperatures reaching a 120-year record. ☀️
On Monday, #Moscow recorded 34.7C, matching the record for a June day from in 1901. 🌡️
In #StPetersburg, daily temperatures rose to 34C, beating the previous record from 2006.🌡️
On Monday, #Moscow recorded 34.7C, matching the record for a June day from in 1901. 🌡️
In #StPetersburg, daily temperatures rose to 34C, beating the previous record from 2006.🌡️
The gravity of the situation was confirmed in June 2020, when in the village of Verkhoyansk — a small settlement of a thousand inhabitants in the Autonomous Republic of Sakha-Yakutia (eastern Siberia) — the mercury reached 38 degrees Celsius. An all-time record for an area known as one of the coldest on Earth.