Scientists forecast potential 40-degree heatwaves in Moscow in summers

MOSCOW. July 26 (Interfax) - The average annual temperature in Russia will further increase by one or two degrees in the next 30 years, the weather in Moscow in May will become more like the June one, Vladimir Semyonov, head of the climatology laboratory at the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said.

"The global air temperature has increased by 1.2 degree in the past 100 years, Russia's changes are bigger, it is growing warmer twice as fast. In the next 30 years, we should expect changes of the average annual temperature for additional one or two degrees, it is noticeable and quite a lot," Semyonov said at a round table on climate change.

Russia's weather became warmed by 1.5 degree since 1970, "it is a very significant change," he said. "If we look at summers, the temperature recorded in June in Moscow over the past 40 years became the same as the monthly average in July 40 years ago, and May temperatures in the foreseeable future will start approaching those of late June," the scientist said.

Global climate change seriously affects weather changes, "as the hydrologic cycle grows more intense, the greater water intensity of the atmosphere appears, the vapor quantity grows bigger, temperature gradients change, and all that changes circulation of the atmosphere and results in such anomalies like the one we're observing now," he said.

"More blocking anticyclones in the summer mean clear sky, a lot of solar energy, the soil growing warmer and drying, and when cold air masses come, they bring tornadoes, squalls, heavy rains, which we now observe further north, in other words in the Moscow area, even though earlier such weather was typical for southern regions," Semyonov said.

Participants in the round table also noted that an increase in Moscow's summer temperatures up to 40 degrees, as it is happening in Europe this summer, is possible in the future amid climate change caused by human impact.