Russia sees warmest September in recorded history

Russia experienced the warmest September in its 130-year recorded history last month, the state weather service said Monday as climate change continues to reshape the country’s weather patterns.

Nearly every geographical region except southeast Russia experienced temperatures several degrees above their September averages, according to the Russian Hydrometeorology Center’s chief specialist Marina Makarova.

“The largest anomalies were observed in north Eurasia where temperatures exceeded the average by 5-6 degrees [Celsius],” she told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.

A wide stretch of Arctic land spanning more than 2,000 kilometers recorded temperatures 4 C higher than average in September, Makarova added.

“New temperature records were repeatedly set throughout the month there. [Russia’s] temperature anomaly was mainly due to the northern regions,” she told RIA Novosti.

The northern and western parts of European Russia saw temperatures 2-3 degrees above September averages, Markova added.

“It was Russia’s warmest [September] in the entire 130-year history of measurements,” she said.

The first six months of 2020 broke Russia’s heat records due to an unusually warm winter. The previous year was also declared the hottest year on record in Russia.

This article first appeared in The Moscow Times and is republished in a sharing partnership with the Barents Observer