Surprising Weather in Europe & Siberia, Russia EDIS CODE: HT-20140405-43268-RUS Date & Time: 2014-04-05 17:21:30 [UTC] Area: Russia [Asia], Multiple areas, Regions of Siberia and Far-East The weather does not cease to surprise: the European part of Russia is still taking actions to recover from the consequences of an unprecedented April snowfall; the Far East began fighting against forest fires; and Siberia is preparing for the opening of its great rivers. What weather surprises are in store for us this spring? Meteorologists told the Voice of Russia about anomalies and forecasts. The unusually warm weather has set in Siberia. The air warmed up to +22 degrees. The abnormal April temperature has already caused forest fires. Dozens of hectares of taiga forest in the South of Siberia and the Far East are already enveloped in fire, chief of the Roshydromet Situation Centre, Yuri Varakin told the Voice of Russia. As for forest fires, the season has already started almost a month earlier, if compared to the last year and the year before last. This especially concerns the Far East and Primorsky Krai. And an immediate forecast for April says that we have increased fire hazard in the Trans-Baikal and Baikal regions, because the abnormally warm weather has set there now, and the snow melts quickly. The early spring has also caused early floating of ice on Russian rivers.rnrnAccording to meteorologists, the situation is quite favourable: the winter was dry, and floods should not be expected. The majority of rivers in the European territory of Russia are at the floodplain level. All indicators suggest that there is no threat of flooding of settlements, leading specialist of the Phobos weather center, Elena Volosyuk says. In general, heavy rains are not expected this spring. It is obvious that in the European part of the country, floodings will be lower than in previous years, and than last year, when snowfalls were observed until the end of April and a number of regions of the European part of Russia led the pack in terms of snow storage. This year, the situation is quite different. But in Siberia, floodings, I think, will be at the level typical for this region. Opening of rivers has already begun. Ice blasting aimed at improving the ice cover situation is in progress on some rivers. So, in terms of flood, there should be no incidents. Experts are closely monitoring the flood situation in the Far East, which suffered from the worst flood in the last 100 years last summer. Opening of ice on the Amur has already started, and it is almost a week ahead of schedule. The water level is expected to be up to the normal level. However, experts encourage local authorities to be ready for any developments of emergency situations, because the weather has repeatedly proven its unpredictability.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Apr 2014 07:32:41 +0000