Post by coolplanet on Aug 20, 2013 11:20:50 GMT -5
Jetstream Strikes Again in Siberia : Heatwave, Wildfire, Flood, Now Torrential Flooding
August 20, 2013
climatecrocks.com/2013/08/20/jetstream-strikes-again-in-siberia-heatwave-flood-now-torrential-flooding/
Nasa Earth Observatory:
The summer of 2012 was the most severe wildfire season Russia had faced in a decade. 2013 might be headed in the same direction after an unusual heat wave brought a surge of fire activity in northern Siberia in July.
A persistent high-pressure weather pattern in the Russian Arctic—a blocking high—contributed to the heat wave, which saw temperatures reach 32° Celsius (90° Fahrenheit) in the northern city of Norilsk. For comparison, daily July highs in Norilsk average 16° Celsius (61° Fahrenheit).
Blocking highs are so named because they block the jet stream from moving rain-bearing weather systems along their normal west-to-east path; this leads to “stuck” weather patterns with long periods of stable air and exceptional heat.
The map above shows land surface temperature anomalies for July 20–27, 2013. Rather than depicting absolute temperatures, the map shows how much the temperatures for that week differed from the long-term average for the area. The measurements were collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. Shades of red indicate temperatures that were warmer than average; blues are below average. Oceans, lakes, and areas with insufficient data (usually because of persistent clouds) appear in gray.
Weather Underground:
The extraordinary and perhaps unprecedented heat wave continues in the central arctic region of Russia. Some locations have now endured 10 consecutive days above 30°C (86°F). Wildfires are erupting in the taiga forests. Norilsk maximum daily temperatures have cooled down a little, but yesterday (July 23rd) it enjoyed its warmest night so far with a low of 20.2°C (68.4°F).
Norilsk, with a population of 175,000, is located at 69° 20’N and 88° 6’E and is the most northerly city in the world with a population over 100,000.
Voice of America:
The worst flooding in more than a century is ravaging Russia’s Far East, displacing thousands near the Amur River, which forms the border with northeastern China.
Russian authorities say 17,000 people had been evacuated by Saturday, and warned that figure could reach 100,000 in the coming days.
China’s official Xinhua news agency said Friday the flooding had killed 11 people and displaced more than 140,000 others on its side of the river, known in China as the Heilongjiang. It also said floodwaters had destroyed more than 2,500 homes, halted passenger rail service and inundated at least 1.4 million hectares
Voice of Russia, Interfax:
Floods that have hit Russia’s Far East cover an area of more than 2,000 kilometers by 500 kilometers, a senior Emergency Situations Ministry official said on Monday.
“It is a unique situation in the sense that it has spread over more than 2,000 kilometers if one looks from west to east, while its depth or width is more than 500 kilometers,” Vladimir Stepanov, head of the National Crisis Management Center of the Emergency Ministry, told a news conference in Moscow.
“There are hundreds of towns and villages and hundreds of thousands of people in the zone of the [rescue] operation,” he said, adding that most of the water causing the floods “is coming from China.”
Continued at link: climatecrocks.com/2013/08/20/jetstream-strikes-again-in-siberia-heatwave-flood-now-torrential-flooding/