8/1 - Hundreds Of New Fires Across Russia - Daily Highs @ 95F+ For Much Of Past 3 Weeks - NYT

[hatrack]

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Some 320 new fires broke out Sunday, but 210 were extinguished, the Emergencies Ministry said, while the total territory ablaze shrank by thousands of acres (hectares) to about 316,000 acres (128,000). No homes were damaged by fire during the weekend, it said. ires have devastated the regions around Nizhny Novgorod, Russia's fifth-largest city, and the city of Ryazan, just southeast of Moscow. They also were moving into regions farther to the east such as Mordovia and Tatarstan.

Smokey air has settled over cities, already baking in the heat, and many residents complain of headaches and intestinal ailments. In Moscow, the smog has come mainly from fires in dried-up peat bogs in outlying regions. The peat, which is high in carbon, can ignite and smolder underground, giving off dangerous fumes.

Much of western and central Russia is suffering through a severe drought, thought to be the worst since 1972, in what has been the hottest summer since record-keeping began 130 years ago. This year's harvest was already in trouble, and the fires have finished off vast fields of golden wheat and other crops.

Temperatures have topped 95 degrees (35 Celsius) for much of the past three weeks, with an all-time high of close to 100 degrees (38 Celsius) recorded in Moscow last week.

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http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/08/01/world/AP-EU-Russia-Fires.html?_r=1

[aquart]

1. And the food threat begins.