Extreme weather fuels fires across Russia

As of early this week, many of the destructive wildfires sweeping at least 13 provinces in western Russia were still out of control. About 550 blazes are still burning, 40 of them surrounding Moscow. Heavy, poisonous smog has led to an average of 700 deaths per day in Russia’s capital.

Millions of hectares of once-golden wheat were being described as “a blackened wasteland.” Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin temporarily banned all wheat exports last week.

The worst drought and heat in Russia in at least 130 years, since regular weather record-keeping began in 1880, will likely persist until mid- to late August. Afternoon high temperatures last week reached a record 100 degrees in Moscow, where the blistering summer of 2010 will live in weather infamy for decades to come.

The record drought and soaring heat have also killed crops and livestock across Eastern Europe, the Black Sea region and western Asia. In central Europe, days of flooding have resulted in extensive damage across Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic.

Pakistan had its worst flooding in recorded history last week. At least 1,200 people were killed, crops were destroyed and millions left homeless after more than a foot of rain fell in the northwestern corner of the country in less than 48 hours. In northwestern China, heavy rains have led to a massive mudslide that has been described as “the deadliest incident in China’s worst flooding in more than a decade.”

In the U.S., excessive heat warnings and heat advisories have been issued for 16 states along the Mississippi River. Last week, heat indices (the combination of air temperature and humidity) approached 120 degrees at Little Rock, Ark. The city also reported a record high of 107 degrees on Aug. 3. The very hot weather has led to crop losses in the region.

By extreme contrast, in the Southern Hemisphere, unusually cold and snowy weather has been reported in Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. In the higher elevations in Argentina, snow is more than 3 feet deep, which is ruining crops and livestock.

In our region, the rest of August looks drier than normal with warm to hot temperatures. Most of the moisture is expected to fall in the higher mountains. September should be dry and warm until late in the month. By that time, showers are likely to return along with cooler temperatures into early to mid-October. The chances of early frosts and freezes in the sheltered areas will likewise increase.