[Vision2020] Thick Smog From Record Heat Wave Fires Covers Moscow, Russia

[Ted Moffett]

* The 2010 global trend for record setting high temperatures continued to
express itself during July with brutal unprecedented heat and
resulting fires in Russia:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/thick-smog-from-heat-wave-fires-covers-moscow/411074.html
Thick Smog From Heat Wave Fires Covers Moscow
 27 July 2010

Muscovites struggled to breathe on Monday and Red Square was blanketed in
smoke as a record-setting heat wave that has already ruined crops caused
fires that set the area around the capital ablaze.

The Emergency Situations Ministry said 34 peat fires and 26 forest fires
were blazing Monday in the Moscow region, covering 59 hectares. Experts
warned that the air had become dangerous.

Airports serving Moscow were unaffected by the thick smoke, whose sharp,
cinder-filled smell permeated the city and crept into offices, homes and
restaurants via windows and doors.

"This is awful. It is going to damage people's health," said telephone
engineer Davit Manukov, 25, standing by the Kremlin where black clouds of
smoke enveloped its golden onion domes.

The Emergency Situations Ministry said it was the worst such attack since a
smog outbreak in 2002, which was also a result of smoke from fires caused by
hot weather.

The Moscow government agency overseeing air pollution, Mosekomonitoring,
said the amount of harmful impurities in Moscow's air exceeded the norm by
five to eight times.

"The ecological situation in Moscow has become unfavorable," its chief
specialist, Alexei
Popikov<http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mt_profile/Alexei_Popikov/>,
said by telephone, adding that it would last several days.
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*http://rt.com/Top_News/2010-07-25/summer-heat-baking-alive.html?fullstory*
**
No end in sight as Russia dries up in heat wave

Published 25 July, 2010, 09:06
Edited 26 July, 2010, 08:44

*“This is a serious abnormality. The Russian weather service has never
measured such temperatures in Moscow in July,” *said Dmitry Kiktyov, Deputy
Director of the Hydrometeorological Center of Russia. *“According to our
calculations, it hasn't even reached its peak yet.”*
*-------------------------------------------*
*Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett*
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