Russia Declares Heat Wave Emergency Amid Drownings and Crop Devastation
Russians sweltered in record-breaking temperatures on Friday as droughts caused crop devastation across the country and hundreds drowned in bathing accidents, which were often influenced by alcohol.
In Moscow, the temperature rose to 33 degrees Celsius, breaking a record for the day set in 1938 under the rule of dictator and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, according to the state weather center.
Temperatures in 10 central Russian regions will hit 38 degrees in a heat wave lasting at least until July 22, the state weather center forecast.
An emergency drought situation has been declared in 19 of Russia’s 83 regions with crops dying on an estimated 9.6 million hectares of fields.
The Russian drought-struck areas were suffering “colossal destruction,” Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik said this week at a meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev. The coldest place on earth in winter, Oimyakon in the Sakha region, was forecast to swelter at 32 degrees on Friday, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported.
In Moscow, people paddled and bathed in fountains to escape the heat and bought record amounts of ice cream.
“Sales of fruit lollies have gone up 10 times,” the general director of the Union of Ice Cream Makers, Valery Elkhov, told the RIA Novosti news agency, with Muscovites gobbling up 250 metric tons of ice cream per day.
Commuters on the Moscow metro sizzled with temperatures inside some stations topping a very rare 29 degrees.
The Kremlin cancelled a weekly ceremonial performance by mounted troops from the presidential regiment, due to fears that the troops and horses would suffer in the heat.
Customers have flocked to buy air conditioners and fans to beat the heat in concrete office blocks and apartment buildings.
July could be a record-breaking month for Moscow, with the average temperature more than six degrees Celsius above the norm so far, according to the state weather center.
The last records were set back in 1972.
As many cooled down by swimming in rivers and ponds, hundreds died from drowning.
The emergency ministry said more than 400 people had drowned since the beginning of July, while 1,244 people drowned in June.
In a shocking case, two teachers at a Moscow school were charged this week with negligence this week after six children and an instructor drowned during a trip to a beach in southern Russia.
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