Smoke blanketing Russia

[Tim Vasquez]

Some parts of western Russia are having some huge problems with smoke from the recent wildfires.

Here is the surface map for this morning (Saturday, 3 pm in Moscow time):

(click to enlarge)​

Moscow is that plot in lower center with 95/69 and 1/16 mile. It's striking how temperatures are in the mid-90s with visibilities severely restricted by smoke. Here is the latest METAR for Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport:

METAR UUEE 071530Z VRB02MPS 0700 R07R/0700V08000700N FU VV004 31/20 Q1021 NOSIG

That's ceiling of 400 feet obscured, visibility about 3/8 mile. All the METARs going back at least a day are like that: link

And if you want pictures... it's the top story on the EnglishRussia.com site: link

Aqua images from earlier today: link

Amazingly the airports in that part of Russia are still operating, though in IFR conditions with instrument approaches and so forth. You have to hand it to how the Russians soldier on ... if this happened at DFW, I'd bet dollars to donuts that half the flights would be cancelled or delayed.

Tim

 

[Bill Hark]

Like many place, Mosocw has had an unusually hot summer with recent days mainly in the upper 90's to 100. 101 is predicted for Monday. I've never been there but I suspect many places don't have a/c in Russia. Thanks for the surface obs pic.

Bill Hark

 

[Rob H]

Doesn't Russia also have a major problem with air pollution to the point where normal citizens are starting to wear masks outside? I'm sure the wildfires aren't helping this..

 

[Matt Gingery]

Yeah, I was hearing that the wildfires are interfering with nuclear storage facilities or waste facilities of some sort. This could be a major bad thing, worst since Cherynobl.

 

[Paul Knightley]

The latest model output, including ensembles, keeps the heat going for the next few days over much of western Russia, in what's already one of the worth heatwaves for many years - Moscow has recorded it's all time max temp record recently.

After the 17th there are some hints of something a little cooler developing, although there are some hints that this might not be for too long.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Wunderground's Dr. Jeff Masters has been talking about the epic Russian heatwave for the past week or two (latest post here). Not only has Russia set it's all-time record high this year, but so have 9 other countries, including Belarus, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Finalnd, Pakistan, Niger, etc. There has been one all-time record cold set this year -- Guinea evidently set it's all-time record low earlier this year. Jeff has some details on a recent blog post at http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1569

His latest post (typically about tropical weather, but also about global noteworthy stories when the tropics are slow) is at
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/show.html

 

[Jerry Prsha]

Worst heat in a 1,000 years supposedly... http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100809/ts_afp/russiaheatwavefires

 

[Tim Vasquez]

That's interesting -- I had no idea that anybody was keeping track of all-time lows and highs country-by-country. I wonder who is doing those tabulations. I have seen lists of extremes for various continents, which I think was done by NCDC or CPC, but that's about it.

As far as Russia goes, I wonder how many of those record temperatures are attributed to the smoke layers trapping long wave radiation on a regional scale.

Tim

 

[Stephen Levine]

Moscow's weather is about like Montreal's with average highs normally in the 70's at this time of year. Knowing this certainly gives me amazement at the utter intensity of this event.
St. Petersburg, far NW of Moscow had a high recently of 99 degrees!
This would be the equivalent to Dallas experiencing high temps of 120 degrees this week.

Between the devastating heat waves across Russia along with intense flooding across parts of the Baltic states, Pakistan, China, and Tibet.. all happening simultaneously -this exactly falls in line with what computer models have been predicting as consequences for global climate change.

 

[czenzel]

Yeah, I was hearing that the wildfires are interfering with nuclear storage facilities or waste facilities of some sort. This could be a major bad thing, worst since Cherynobl.

Speaking of Cherynobl the smokes might be emitting some radiation. They said they are trying to contain the smoke from the wildfires in the radiation-polluted areas, but the smoke in smaller towns around Cherynbol might be getting a dose of radiation through the wildfire smoke.

MSNBC Article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38648372/ns/world_news-the_new_york_times/

 

[Jason Harris]

Masters' point here sure is notable:

Belarus' new all-time extreme heat record gives the year 2010 the most national extreme heat records for a single year--seventeen. These nations comprise 19% of the total land area of Earth. This is the largest area of Earth's surface to experience all-time record high temperatures in any single year in the historical record.

 

[Menno van der Haven]

Here's a map from the new Scientist:

It links the russian heatwave and the floodings in Pakistan to this upper level pattern. Off course such a pattern often occurs over Europe, but now it's persistent for weeks.....

The russian heat is extreme. I guess it's like the average juli-weather in Dallas, TX (both heat and precip) occurs in southern Alberta.....