Russia Declares Fire EmergenciesJason wrote:Jason wrote:I want to dedicate a post here to Russia as this isn't getting anywhere near mainstream news and this is BIG. Katrina was one town....and really less than 25% of one town. In Russia right now the whole country is burning up. The crops (within weeks of harvest) are destroyed. Underground water pipes in Moscow are boiling water....its horrific.
Again this is like Canada getting sustained temps 95 and above for prolonged period. Russia is not equipped to fight the fires.
Several of the links are repeated from posts above.....but Russia specific as well as some new ones.
Here's some pictures from a blog -
http://drugoi.livejournal.com/3313180.html
Fires in Eastern Siberia
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Natura ... &src=nhrss
Fires and Smoke near Moscow
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Natura ... p?id=44966
Putin is going to put down the iron fist....or face a civil war!http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Natura ... &src=nhrssSmoke over Western Russia
Hundreds of fires burned across western Russia on August 2, 2010, but it is the smoke that conveys the magnitude of the disaster in this true-color image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. Dense gray-brown smoke extends across the width of this image, a distance of about 1,700 kilometers (1,000 miles). The smoke clearly continues both east and west beyond the edge of the image, and is visible in both previous and successive orbits of the Terra satellite. The smoke is so thick that it is not possible to see the ground beneath it.
The fires ignited in late July and early August as record heat combined with drought turned plants tinder dry. Nearly 700 fires burned on August 2, reported CNN, burning homes, killing at least 34 people, and pushing about 500 towns and villages into a state of emergency. The western half of the impacted region is shown in this image. One of the worst hit communities, Nizhny Novgorod, is beneath the dense smoke on the left side of the image. The city’s approximate location is marked.
Many of the fires burned in peat bogs, producing the thick smoke shown in the image. Because of the smoke, the air quality was poor from Moscow (east of the area shown in the image) to west of the Ural Mountains. MODIS detected some of the fires along the edge of the smoke. These fires are outlined in red and visible in the large image. Additional fires in the forests of eastern Siberia pumped dense smoke over eastern Russia.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10836281Heatwave grinds on
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin saw some of the fire damage for himself in Nizhny Novgorod region last week. On Monday, he held meetings with regional leaders in Moscow to discuss further help for affected communities.
Russians are bracing themselves for another week of high temperatures, with forecasts of up to 40C (104F) for central and southern regions.
Officials also expect stronger winds in some regions, which will fan the flames.
By Sunday night, wildfires were still raging across some 128,000 ha (316,000 acres).
Wildfires force state of emergency for 500 Russian towns
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/08 ... A+World%29
Wildfires Spread Across Russia's West
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World- ... nds_Strong
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9cd5c8f2-9e61 ... ftcamp=rssRussia declared a state of emergency in seven regions on Monday as the death toll climbed from wildfires sweeping the European part of the country. The fires have devastated homes, farmland and forests across a huge swathe of European Russia, which has been left parched by a prolonged heatwave and drought. A fifth of Russia’s grain crop has been destroyed by lack of rain, prompting a surge in world wheat prices and driving many farmers to the brink of bankruptcy.
Dmitry Medvedev, Russian president, signed a decree on Monday declaring an emergency in the Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan, Voronezh, Mordovia and Mari El regions, the Kremlin said in a statement.
The decree bars Russians from entering forests and peat bogs at risk of fire until the emergency is lifted. It also calls for the recruitment of volunteers to help combat the wildfires.
Mr Medvedev urged Russians visiting the countryside to be vigilant. “Much depends on us and on your behaviour,” he said. “It is difficult in the city, stuffy and very hot . . . Everyone wants to go out to the country. Remember, any discarded match can bring about an irrevocable disaster. These are not banal words, it is how things are.”
Vladimir Putin, Russia’s prime minister, called a meeting of regional governors to discuss the crisis. “Every day several hundred new fires break out including tens of huge ones. We must do everything possible effectively to battle with this dreadful calamity,” he said.
Weather forecasters warned on Monday that there was no hope of respite from the record-breaking heatwave, which has gripped European Russia for more than five weeks.
In Moscow, people donned masks as smog from the burning peat bogs cloaked the city on Monday morning.
Health officials advised children and the elderly to stay at home as pharmacies reported a rush on oxygen canisters used to ease respiratory problems.
Avtovaz, Russia’s biggest carmaker, halted assembly lines on Monday. The company said the forecast temperatures of 45°C could damage the health of workers.
Russia declares fire emergency
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=13 ... =351020602
Check Out These Incredible Photos Of The Fires Engulfing Russia
http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-w ... f-moscow-1
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... QD9HBGF3G0Bad Russian wheat harvest boosts US farmers
MOSCOW — A severe drought destroyed one-fifth of the wheat crop in Russia, the world's third-largest exporter, and now wildfires are sweeping in to finish off some of the fields that remained.
Expectations that Russia will slash exports by at least 30 percent have sent wheat prices soaring and this is good news for farmers in the world's largest wheat exporter — the United States.
The higher wheat prices may mean that Americans and Europeans pay slightly more for bread, but the bigger burden will fall on people in the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia, analysts say.
The Russian Grain Union said Monday that it expects exports to decline to 15 million tons, down from 21.4 million tons in 2009, while the SovEcon consultancy sees them at 12 million tons and other analysts at even less.
"Russia has become the price-maker on the market," said Dmitry Rylko, director general of the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies, who says he expects minimal exports.
Russian farmers have little incentive to export. Even though grain prices are rising on world markets, with further gains on Monday, they are growing even faster in Russia, so many farmers are holding on to their harvested grain in the hopes of still higher profits.
The majority of the damage to Russia's wheat crop has been caused by the drought, one of the worst in decades as much of the country suffers through the hottest summer since record-keeping began 130 years ago. But in recent days, wildfires raging through much of western Russia have spread into farmland and there are fears that more fields will be lost.
The director of a small state farm outside Moscow said fire destroyed its entire wheat crop one night before they planned to harvest.
"The fruits of the year's labor of the farm went up in smoke — this is very painful," said Pavel Grudinin, director of the Lenin State Farm, said Monday on Russian television. He said a woman who worked as a horticulturist at the farm was weeping in his office.
State farms have been marginalized since the fall of the Soviet Union and most of Russian grain production comes from big, often multinational companies. After years of stagnation, Russian agriculture has been on the upswing as Russian firms and foreign investment funds have started to buy up land and upgrade production.
Wheat prices on the Chicago Board of Trade surged in July by 42 percent, the biggest monthly gain in more than a half century, and are now the highest they have been in nearly two years. With no immediate end in sight for the drought in Russia, analysts expect prices to continue to rally.
Wheat futures rose more than 5 percent Monday to $6.975.
Morning markets: wheat sprints into August as Russia bakes
http://www.agrimoney.com/marketreport/m ... --690.html
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Natura ... &src=nhrssFires in Eastern Siberia
Intense fires continued to burn in the boreal forests of eastern Siberia on August 1, 2010. The fires are outlined in red in this image, acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. The fires span the borders of Russia’s Chukotskiy, Magadan, and Koryakskiy provinces.
Burning in coniferous (evergreen) forests, the fires blanketed northeastern Siberia with thick brown smoke. The smoke hugs the ground near the fires, filling valleys, and soars over clouds farther away from the flames. On August 1, the smoke flowed north from the fires and over the Arctic Ocean. A wide view of the Arctic shows the smoke crossing the Bering Strait and clouding skies over northern Alaska.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/world ... ss&emc=rss
Video: Russians Flee From Inside Forest Fire
http://www.theatlantic.com/internationa ... ire/60809/
Putin positioning himself to reclaim Russia presidency
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 7982.story
Dmitry Medvedev would not run against Vladimir Putin
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... Putin.html