Perilous Times and Climate Change
Russian heatwave 'worst in 1000 years'
* From correspondents in Moscow
* From: AFP
* August 09, 2010 10:14PM
THE heatwave which has caused a sanitary and agricultural crisis in
Russia is the most severe in the country's entire history, a top
meteorological official says.
The head of weather forecaster Rosgidromet said that nothing similar
had been observed in the millennium history of the Russian state, which
dates back to the acceptance of Christianity by ancient Russia in the
late 10th Century.
"From the moment of the foundation of our country, we can say, in the
last period of 1000 years, no similar heatwave has been observed
neither by ourselves nor by our ancestors," Alexander Frolov said.
"This is a completely unique phenomenon," he told a televised news
conference.
"There are no observations of this in the archives."
Summer temperature records have tumbled throughout July and August with
the worst smog in living memory from wildfires descending on Moscow in
the last days.
Officials said that mortality in Moscow had doubled amid the heatwave.