The heat covered almost the entire Northern Hemisphere. And if in Moscow it is “just” +30, then in other regions there are continuous anomalies and temperature records. What is happening and what to expect next?
Summer 2018 is unusual. The heat lasts for a long time and over vast territories, practically in the entire Northern Hemisphere. Yes, it is different. In Moscow, here is "just" +30 degrees and so, starting in June. It's a sin to complain: summer is so summer, sun and warmth.
But the neighbors are different. Europe has been languishing for a month from the abnormal heat. And everything: from Sweden and Norway in the north, to Great Britain in the west and Spain with Portugal in the south. Thirty do not even consider the heat - even in Scandinavia it is hotter! In Germany, a country not particularly beachfront, +37. “At our workplace, everyone walks barefoot. And I want to live in a cold shower,”a friend from Berlin writes.
A cyclist rides across a bridge over a dry river in Switzerland.
In Russia, the epicenter of sultry records suddenly turned out to be not the south, but the northwest. Photos are sent from the Arkhangelsk region - on the beaches of the White Sea to the people, like in Sochi! So what? The sand there is no worse, there is almost thirty on the street, there has been no rain for the third week, the shallow sea has warmed up. And the White Sea is actually the Arctic Ocean. Remember the classic cartoons about global warming: come to the resorts of the southern coast of the Arctic! This is not a joke. Here it is, the Arctic. Beaches. And a very resort weather. Right now in 2018.
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In July 2018, 118 new temperature records were recorded in the world, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. We are not talking about the highs for individual days, although forecasters also consider them. And about the records in the entire history of meteorological observations, which have been conducted in different countries for 100-150 years. 2018 is quite possibly the warmest year on Earth in history, the World Meteorological Organization already predicts.
Because of the heat, the swans from the Hamburg city park had to be evacuated into the shade of winter houses.
SPECIALIST COMMENT
- This summer is very hot in the European territory of Russia, with the main anomalies in the northwest: in the Leningrad and Kaliningrad regions, Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, in Karelia. The average temperatures there are 5-8 degrees above normal. In Moscow and other regions of central Russia, the heat exceeds climatic norms “only” by 3-4 degrees. At the same time, not a single heat record was set in Moscow over the summer, all of them went to the north of Russia, - Tatiana Pozdnyakova, chief specialist of the Moscow meteorological office, shares the details with “KP”.
But among the general steam room there is also a "freezer" - whoever is hot should go to the Urals and to western Siberia.
- There are extremely cold summers, frosts. The temperature is 8-10 degrees lower than usual! Records are also breaking, but - in terms of minimum temperatures, - Pozdnyakova clarifies.
In early August in the Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Irkutsk and Kemerovo regions, as well as in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, it froze to -3 degrees. Snow fell in Norilsk in July. Siberia, of course, is a cold land. But not to the same extent!
Why is this happening?
“Because of global warming, the temperature contrast between the polar regions of the planet and the tropics has decreased,” explains Tatyana Pozdnyakova.
Spectators of a music festival in the Hungarian capital take a break from the heat in the waters of the Danube.
The fact is that global warming is not uniform. The average temperature on Earth is growing at a rate of 0.17 degrees over 10 years. And in the Arctic for the same 10 years, it rises by 0.8 degrees. More than four times faster! Therefore, the temperature contrast is smoothed out.
- For this reason, the usual west-east transport of air masses, when cyclones from the Atlantic go through Europe and the European part of Russia to the Urals, is disrupted. But in summer it is the cyclones that bring coolness and rain. Instead, the meridional transfer of air masses prevails - the crests of anticyclones stretch along the meridians, - Tatyana Pozdnyakova continues. They are called ridges because there is a high atmospheric pressure in the anticyclone. If a cyclone, an area with low atmospheric pressure, stretches along the meridian, meteorologists speak of a trough.
- Moreover, the ridges can be located from north to south - then the icy air from the Arctic "sinks" right up to the Black Sea, and we are talking about an ultrapolar invasion. Or from south to north - then the center and north of Russia can get the warmth of Africa or the Middle East.
Now it is. All of Europe and the west of European Russia are covered by a very powerful ridge of the anticyclone. It stretches from the subtropics to the Arctic Circle, according to the Hydrometeorological Center of Russia. The Urals and Siberia are in a cold hollow. Further - a new crest, heat in the Russian Far East and Japan. The same picture is in America, it is also in a vertical "strip" of ridges and troughs in the atmosphere. So the process is truly global.
- In 2010, a ridge with African air stretched right through Moscow (then the heat in the Russian capital stood for weeks, peat bogs were burning - Ed.). Now all its power went to the Old World, we are on the periphery with comfortable weather, - explains Pozdnyakova.
What will happen next? Where will the middle strip and other Russian regions be next summer? In the heat or cold?
- Oh, this is how the card will fall, - the expert throws up his hands. - Yes, there will certainly be large temperature anomalies, but how they will be distributed is difficult to say.
HEAT AND WALLET
Due to abnormally hot summer food prices may rise
Director of the Hydrometeorological Center of Russia Dmitry Kiktev warned that the harvest of grains and legumes will be 15-20% poorer than in 2017. In Germany, they are preparing for the fact that grain will be harvested by a third less than usual, the losses are estimated at 1.5 billion euros. Many vegetables and fruits also cannot stand abnormal heat and drought. If this happened in the Middle Ages, the inhabitants of Russia and Europe would be threatened with famine. Now it will not be, of course. But food prices will surely rise.
SUMMER WEATHER ANOMALIES AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES
IN RUSSIA
! Temperature records have been set in many regions of the European part of Russia. St. Petersburg, Pskov, Rybinsk, Karelian Kandalaksha, polar Naryan-Mar - everywhere for +30!
! “In the Land of Magnolias” is no longer about the Black Sea, but about the Baltic. Magnolias have bloomed for the second time in Kaliningrad. Usually they are pleasing to the eye in April-May, and then they suddenly decided to bloom again in August. Cause? Unprecedented heat for the cool Baltic coast, plus high humidity.
! The Baltic Sea itself has blossomed - there, as in a warm soup, cyanobacteria have proliferated, they are blue-green algae. They begin to bloom as soon as the water warms up to +17 degrees. In 2018, this happened back in May, first in the waters of Germany, then off the coast of other countries. Over the summer, the algae spread over at least 70 thousand square meters, they are visible even from satellites. Oceanographers admitted that the Baltic was sick. Cyanobacteria are toxic and can cause poisoning and allergies.
! In Primorye, the heat is off scale +35 degrees. Such a sultry summer happens here every 8-9 years.
! For the south of Russia, the heat is not so surprising, but still: in the Kuban, in the Stavropol Territory, in the North Caucasus and on the Lower Volga up to +39. In Kalmykia and Dagestan +40. July in the Krasnodar Territory and Crimea was 4-6 degrees warmer than the climatic norm, with temperatures up to + 33 … + 36.
IN EUROPE
! Above all of Spain, not just a cloudless sky - a scorching heat, unprecedented even for this sunny country. The main "frying pan" is the southern regions, Andalusia and Extremadura, there are up to +46 degrees. In the shadow. On the coasts, where tourists rest, it is more humane, up to +35 degrees. But you can't refresh yourself in the water - near the beaches of Mallorca, the Mediterranean warmed up to +30. The current heat wave threatens to break the record in the entire history of meteorological observations, not only for Spain (+47.3 degrees, set in 2013), but for the whole of Europe (+48 degrees, has been holding since the 1970s).
! In northern Norway with Finland +33 (new records). In Germany, generally +37! The country may lose… Christmas trees. Trees in nurseries cannot stand the heat, they dry up.
! Energy problems: because of the calm, wind farms, of which there are a lot in the Old World, have risen. And in Sweden and France, part of the nuclear power plant was temporarily suspended. The water, which is used to cool the reactors, has managed to heat up itself.
! Great Britain has gone from foggy Albion to sultry. In Scotland, +33.2 degrees - a new hot record for the British north. Instead of wool kilts, it's time to put on a pareo.
! Wildfires are raging in Greece, Portugal, even Sweden and Norway. The reason is the same - a few weeks of dry and sultry weather.
IN JAPAN
! In the Land of the Rising Sun, a new maximum in the history of meteorological observations, +41.1 degrees.
IN AMERICA
! Many states - Massachusetts, Maine, Wyoming, Colorado, Oregon, New Mexico and Texas - set new temperature records in the summer of 2018.
! Death Valley in California proved to be a hell of a hell: during the day +46 degrees of shade, at night +31, the average monthly temperature in July is +42.2 degrees. Elsewhere in California, “only” 37. Wildfires are already being called the worst in state history. Several people died, about 40 thousand were evacuated.
! The Pacific Ocean off the coast of California warmed up to +26 degrees - this is a record for more than a hundred years, observations of the sea water temperature have been carried out here since 1916.
According to the Hydrometeorological Center of Russia and the Phobos Center.
YULIA SMIRNOVA
