Heat wave fuels Russian wildfires

Heat wave fuels Russian wildfires

The heat wave and drought in western Russia have sparked wildfires in the region that have killed at least 40 people and destroyed 2,000 homes. These photos of the devastation caused by the fires are lit by an eerie yellowish glow, caused by sunlight filtering through the smog caused by the fires.

An arch-like fragment of a heating system and remnants of a chimney are all that is left of a wooden house destroyed by fire in the village of Kadanok, 150 kilometres southeast of Moscow on Tuesday, Aug, 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

A ceramic dog statue that survived last week's fire is seen surrounded by burned-down ruins of the wooden house in Kadanok. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Two police officers guard burned-down ruins of houses in Kadanok. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

A cross-like fragment of a metal fence destroyed by fire in Kadanok. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

A tree trunk burns amid smoldering remnants of a forest outside Kadanok.(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Tree trunks smolder amid the burned-down remnants of a forest outside Kadanok, (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Burnt ruins of houses destroyed by fire in Kadanok. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Margarita Sholokhova, centre, with her sons. Sholokhova's house was destroyed by fire in the village of Kadanok, The weather in the areas where the blazes are concentrated isforecast to reach 38 C this week. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Offices close as smoke chokes Moscow

Offices close as smoke chokes Moscow

Tourists walk along Moscow's Red Square in heavy smog caused by peat fires in nearby forests on Aug. 6, 2010. REUTERS/Alexander Natruskin 

Dense clouds of acrid smoke from peat and forest fires choked Russia’s capital on Friday, seeping into homes and offices, forcing planes to divert and obliging residents to wear surgical masks on their faces.

Air pollution surged to five times normal levels in the city of 10.5 million, the highest sustained  contamination since Russia’s worst heatwave in over a century began a month ago. 

Officials urged Muscovites to not venture outdoors because of the dangerous levels of carbon monoxide and fine particles in the air. Weather forecasts said the smoke, which has reached even underground metro stations, would stay until Monday.

Looking across Red Square on Friday, dense smoke shrouded the famous onion domes of St Basil’s cathedral and the Kremlin spires. NASA satellite images showed a 3,000 km-long smoke cloud covering large swathes of European Russia.

The deadliest wildfires in nearly four decades have killed at least 52 people and left thousands homeless as entire villages of wooden homes burned down, official figures say.

However the true toll from the smoke and heatwave may be much higher. Interfax news agency quoted an “informed source” on Friday saying death rates in Moscow surged nearly 30 per cent in July because of the “disastrous heat and smoke cloud”.

--Reuters news Agency

The Kremlin wall is seen through heavy smog on Aug. 6, 2010. REUTERS/Alexander Natruskin 
A woman wears a mask to protect herself from the smell of heavy smog, caused by peat fires in nearby forests, as she walks in central Moscow, August 6, 2010. REUTERS/Mikhail Voskresensky 

Smog blankets Moscow during record heat

People walk along Red Square in Moscow with St. Basil's Cathedral seen through heavy smog caused by peat fires in nearby forests on July 26, 2010. Muscovites struggled to breathe on Monday and Red Square was blanketed in smoke as a record-setting heatwave that that has already ruined crops caused fires that set the area around the capital ablaze. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

Moscow sweltered on Monday through its hottest day since records began 130 years ago, as temperatures hit 37.4 C, sparking peat fires that blanketed the city in smog. A heatwave has engulfed central parts of European Russia, and Siberia since June, destroying crops covering an area the size of Portugal.

Moscow's Novodevichyi Monastery is seen through a fog in downtown on Monday, July 26, 2010.  (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)

Posted at 01:21 PM in Air quality, Europe, Heat wave | Permalink | Comments (0)

Russia longs for heat relief

Youngsters enjoy cold water in the Soviet era "Fountain of the Nations' Friendship" in Moscow on July 7, 2010. ALEXANDER NEMENOV/ AFP PHOTO /GETTY IMAGES 

One of the fiercest heatwaves in its history has engulfed Russia, withering crops, causing the worst drought in 130 years and prompting a top public health official to call for Spanish-style siesta breaks.

Central parts of European Russia have all been suffering from the scorching heat, which started in late June and often reaches 40 C in the shade.

Similar conditions have only occurred five times — in 1919, 1920, 1936, 1938 and 1972 — since Russia started recording temperatures 130 years ago, Valery Lukyanov, deputy head of Russia’s main weather forecast centre Roshydromet, told Reuters.

“This is the sixth year in history when late June and early July pose a real threat from the point of view of abnormal temperatures,” he said, adding that Moscow could set its own record if temperatures hit 37C.

The capital’s previous high of 36.6 was registered in 1936, Lukyanov said. “God forbid us to set such records,” he added.

--Reuters News Agency 

Russian girls sunbathe on banks of the Neva river in central St. Petersburg on July 6, 2010 while cooling off from the hot summer sun. KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP/Getty Images

Drownings soar during Russian heat wave

People cool off in the Khimkinsky reservoir as temperatures reach more than 30 C in Moscow on July 12, 2010. REUTERS/Alexander Natruskin

According to Russia's Emergencies Ministry, one side effect of a lingering heat wave in the country has been a sharp increase in drownings, with alcohol being the chief culprit.

Between July 5 and July 12, more than 230 Russians drowned, largely because they were drunk.

The children who drowned died because the adults were too drunk to look after them, according to Vadim Seryogin, a department head at the ministry.

The heat wave is expected to last another week.

Europe wilts under heat wave

A zookeeper waters down a bear at the zoo in St. Petersburg on July 15, 2010 in order to cool it off from the hot summer sun. The temperature in the city is 33 C. AFP PHOTO / KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV

A heat wave across much of Europe is causing crops to wither, forest fires to ignite and roads to melt, while refrigerators and fans are buckling in the searing sun.

From Russia’s Urals mountains to western Germany, a week of temperatures hovering stubbornly in the mid-30s C has baked northern parts of Europe, which are usually spared the heat of the Mediterranean — and forecasters are warning of more to come over the next week.

--The Associated Press

The best places to visit in the world

Orange River Namibia

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I went Kayaking down the Orange River - it was great fun but a bit hot!

World Cup South Africa - Cape Town Stadium

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I visited the new stadium in 2009 - it was magnificant

Cape Town Table Mountain and Waterfront

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I visited the Table Mountain and waterfront in Cape Town

World Cup

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World Cup South Africa 2010 - really looking forward to it!

New Cross London

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I visited New Cross once - I found some dead hair in the back of a garden - horrible!

Fontainebleau - the Chateau

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I visited Fontainebleau - also where Insead Business School is located. Lovely place.

Caen Normandy

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I visited Caen - lovely Cathedral. I saw somene being told off by the Priest for answering their mobile phone in the cript!

Sierra Nevada Spain

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I visited Sierra Nevada - the highest mountain in Spain

Sete - France

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I went on holiday in France and visited Sete

Camps Bay Cape Town South Africa

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I visited Camps Bay - very trendy with the chic!

Venice Italy

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I visited Venice when I was very young - and very expensive

Nunspeet Windmill

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This is a windmill beltmolen near Nunspeet - I love cycling around there

Collinee Brittany

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I stayed in a lovely village called Collinee

London eye

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It was great fun on the London Eye ride

Namibia Sand Dunes

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We drove for hours through the desert

Viaduc de Millau the worlds tallest suspension bridge

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I camp close to Millau in the Massif Central with family and friends - great fun

Gorges de la Gourbie France

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I went Kayaking down the gorge wih family and friends - great fun

Little Switzerland Calvados Normandy

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I went Kyacking in Calvados Normany

Spain Porto Banus Marbella

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My favourite holiday ever was near Marbella - we stayed in a villa with a pool. I learnt to dive. It was always warm and sunny. And I was with my friends and family.

Sandbanks

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Super holiday in Charmouth in UK - visited Sanbanks and Swanage

Swanage Dorset

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We had a meal in the square shaped restaurant sticking out over the water

Abbotsbury Swannery

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I visited the lovely swannery near Abbotsbury in Dorset

Beautiful Switzerland

Switzerland is a beautiful alpine country in central Europe.
The safety, security, and scenic beauty of the country for walking, hiking, and skiing, give it a strong and robust tourism sector.
Goethe summed up Switzerland eloquently as a combination of 'the colossal and the well-ordered'. You can be sure that your trains will be on time. The tidy precision of Swiss towns is tempered by the majestic splendour of the landscapes that surround them.

New Zealand

New Zealand is a beautiful country filled with glacial mountains, fast rivers, crystal clear lakes, hissing geysers, lush forests, long, deserted beaches. The flightless Kiwi bird is found only in New Zealand, and New Zealanders overseas (and at home) are still invariably called “Kiwis”.

Japanese Geisha

Perhaps ever since Japan opened its doors to the western world, the West has always been fascinated by the geisha. Although they have always been known as beautiful, intelligent, alluring and mysterious, not much has really been said of geisha because they live closeted in their hanamachi, their “flower and willow world.” Imagination has taken hold of what facts left blank, and the common image of the geisha imprinted in the Western mindset is that of the prostitute. But geisha, the true geisha, are not prostitutes. The term geisha is made of two kanji: gei, which is the character for “art”; and sha, the character for “person” or “doer.” Literally, the true geisha is an artist. She can play traditional Japanese instruments, sing, dance, hold intelligent and meaningful conversation, make Japanese flower arrangements called ikebana, perform a tea ceremony, write poetry, and other such traditional Japanese arts.What could be attributed as the reason why geisha have been associated with prostitution may be because when Japan opened itself to the western world in the mid-1800s, prostitutes have advertised themselves as geisha to foreigners who came to Japan. A casual observer may indeed mistake an oiran or prostitute for a maiko, which is the term for the apprentice geisha. Both the oiran and the maiko wear colorful clothes and heavy white makeup accented with small red lips and eyes highlighted with black and red. (Full-fledged geisha only wear makeup on formal occasions and special dances, and are often clad in more somber kimono.) The main difference in their attire, however, is that the oiran wear their obi with the bow at the front to facilitate easier removal and replacement. The maiko and the geisha, on the other hand, have the bows of their obi tied at the back in a more elaborate fashion.
In fact, within the hanamichi, it is known that geisha are forbidden to have sexual contact with their customers. They may make suggestions and innuendos as part of their word-play, but that only serves to heighten their appeal: a customer may desire after or even fall in love with a geisha, but he can never have her. The geisha are expected to remain single for as long as they are geisha. A geisha may have a lover, but that relationship is supposed to be a serious one and not a casual fling. She may also have a danna or a patron, who is supposed to shoulder the cost of her expensive training and clothes, but she is not expected to be in love with her danna or to pay him back through intimate favors. The geisha’s good reputation within and outside the hanamachi is taken very seriously. If she decides to get married, she must retire from being a geisha and leave the hanamachi.
Because it is expensive to hire the services of a geisha, the art of becoming and being a geisha is now on the decline in Japan. No one outside of Japan really knows how many geisha are left, but the count varies from 1,000 to 2,000. While originally, geisha are trained from childhood to become what they are, modern geisha enter the hanamachi after finishing junior high school, with most going into training after college. How the hanamachi and its famed geisha will survive, no one really knows.

Antarctica and The Arctic Ocean

Antarctica is the coldest, driest and windiest continent. There is little precipitation, except at the coasts, so the interior of the continent is technically the largest desert in the world.
There are no permanent human residents and Antarctica never had an indigenous population. Only cold-adapted plants and animals survive there, including penguins, fur seals, mosses, lichens, and algae.
Tourism in the Antarctic is mainly by around 20 vessels carrying 45 to 280 passengers each.In Antarctica and the Arctic Ocean only cold-adapted animals survive, such as penguins, fur seals, mosses, lichens, and algae.