Dmitry Solovyov Reuters 29 Jul 10;
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The summer heat set a new all-time temperature record in Moscow Thursday, a leading forecaster said, adding that the unprecedentedly long heatwave could be interrupted already Friday.
Temperatures in the Russian capital hit 37.7 degrees Celsius (99.86 Fahrenheit), beating the previous record set on July 26, said the Fobos forecasting center which provides weather data for the country's top media outlets.
At Domodedovo airport outside Moscow, temperatures soared to 38.7 Celsius (101.66 Fahrenheit), Fobos said.
The adverse effects of the severe heat which has been terrorizing Muscovites since late June are aggravated by heavy smog which blankets the city of over 10 million and is caused mainly by burning peat in forests surrounding Moscow.
Russia's chief lung doctor Alexander Chuchalin warned on Wednesday that due to a large concentration of toxins in the air walking in the streets of Moscow is like smoking two packs of cigarettes every few hours.
Mineral water and soft drinks sell like hot cakes in Moscow, while many pharmacies have run out of oxygen sprays.
Elsewhere in Russia, a drought unseen for all 130 years of weather observation has killed crops on an area the size of Hungary, leading the government to impose a state of emergency in 23 regions.
But after suffering from the suffocating heat for nearly six weeks, Muscovites may finally get a breather Friday when a cold atmospheric front is expected to bring extreme temperatures down to above 30 degrees Celsius, Fobos said.
The fall in temperatures will be accompanied by heavy rain showers and thunder storms which are expected to reduce smog.
In Finland, a record temperature of 37 Celcius was measured Thursday, the Finnish Meteorological Institute said.
"According to preliminary observations, the highest ever temperature record has been measured today, when the temperature at Joensuu airport rose at 4 p.m. (1300 GMT) to 37 Celcius," the institute said on its website.
Joensuu is located in eastern Finland, 437 kilometres northeast from Helsinki.
The previous temperature record was 35.9 Celcius from July 1914, in the western coast city of Turku.
(Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov))
Mercury soars to record high in Russia
Yahoo News 29 Jul 10;
MOSCOW (AFP) – Temperatures on Thursday soared to 38.2 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) in the Russian capital, the highest since records began more than 150 years ago, the Moscow Weather Office said.
Moscow has been in the grip of an unprecedented heatwave since the start of the month.
The second highest temperature ever recorded was registered on Monday when the mercury hit 37.2 degrees Celsius (99 degrees Fahrenheit), easily beating the previous record of 36.8 degrees from July 1920.
The heat has caused a series of forest fires in western and southern Russia, which have threatened villages and forced evacuations.
Seven summer camps for children and three hospitals were evacuated in the Voronezh region, 600 kilometres (370 miles) south of Moscow, the ministry of emergency situations said.
President Dmitry Medvedev telephoned the governor of the region and demanded information on measures taken to tackle the fires, the official Ria Novosti news agency reported.
Russian media have reported cases of entire villages being enveloped in different fires across the parched country, including a village in Nizhny Novgorod east of Moscow were 341 houses were destroyed and nearly 600 inhabitants evacuated.
Heat damage to Russia crop past worst, official says
Aleksandras Budrys Reuters 29 Jul 10;
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's worst drought for decades is set to drag on for at least the next 7 days in some areas but further serious damage to grain crops is not expected, a senior government weather forecaster said on Thursday.
Drought in some regions of Russia, one of the world's biggest wheat exporters, has sent global prices soaring to year highs in July, putting U.S. wheat futures on track for their biggest monthly gain since 1973.
Grain traders say the rally shows signs of continuing, although analysts observed stocks built up over the last two years of the largest global wheat harvests in history should ensure sufficient supplies.
The International Grains Council confirmed the impact of drought and floods in the key Black Sea growing area as it cut its 2010/11 forecast of global wheat output by 13 million tonnes to 651 million tonnes, but said it would still be the third highest crop on record.
"A prolonged period of dry weather and high temperatures significantly reduced yield prospects in Russia, Kazakhstan, parts of Ukraine and northwestern areas of the EU, while wet weather and flooding were detrimental for crops in Canada and parts of south-eastern Europe," the IGC said on Thursday.
Anna Strashnaya, head of the Agricultural Forecasts Department at Russia's Hydrometeorological Service (Rosgidromet) told Reuters further crop damage was likely to be limited.
"I don't think any more damage may be done to grains," she said. "Now we have to harvest what is left."
This confirms Wednesday's statement by CEO and President of SovEcon agricultural analysts Andrei Sizov Sr.
"Basically, the peak of losses have been passed. What has been burned has been burned," Sizov told Reuters on Wednesday, commenting on the Black Sea region crop losses.
RAINS COMING
Rosgidromet forecast torrential rains on Thursday and Friday in the northwest and in the central part of European Russia as well as a 5-8 degree dip in temperatures from current levels close to +40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Farenheit).
But in the regions along the Volga worst hit by the drought no rains are expected in the next 7 days and the heat of between +35 and +40 degrees Celsius will continue.
Heat records that beat previous 30-70 year-old highs were registered in July in the North-Western, Central and Volga Federal Districts, the service said.
"In fact, the absence of rains permits farmers to harvest what is left," Strashnaya commented.
Russian officials are very careful giving crop forecasts but on Tuesday, the economy ministry admitted this year's grain crop may be less than 80 million tonnes, 5 million tonnes below the latest official forecast.
Analysts believe that the crop may fall to less than 70 million tonnes nearly halving the country's exports.
Strashnaya added the crop situation in the North Caucasus, considered one of Russia's main breadbaskets, was benign and this may partially cushion the damage caused to other regions.
Heat is also set to stay in the Urals. In many regions of Siberia and the Far East, where the harvesting has not yet started, abundant rains are expected in the next few days.
UKRAINE CONTROLS EXPORTS
In neighboring Ukraine, suffering its own problems from drought and flooding, customs services set new controls on wheat exports which traders said on Thursday could halt shipments.
"This effectively means a ban on wheat exports," Serhiy Stoyanov, head of Ukrainian traders' and producers' union UAC, told Reuters, as analysts said Ukraine was positioning itself to deal with grain shortages after its troubled growing season.
"The latest actions show that the government fears a food grain shortage in the country and the controls are directed at making food grain exports more complicated and limiting sales," said Mykola Vernytsky from ProAgro consultancy.
Fellow Black Sea grain producer Romania, said on Thursday it had harvested 4.4 million tonnes of wheat from three quarters of the area planted but yields had dropped due to flooding and hail causing a 15 percent plunge in expected output.
Romania's southern Black Sea neighbor Bulgaria said it had exported some 51,000 tonnes of wheat from its new crop, mainly to Spain, Italy and Portugal, while another 110,000 tonnes are being loaded, an official said.
Although Bulgaria's harvest is expected to be down on last years because of the weather farmers and traders say its wheat exports may match last year's exports of 1.4 million tonnes, if demand remains high and prices attractive.
(Editing by Keiron Henderson)
