First half of 2016 was warmest in last 35 years in Russia - Roshydromet

UFA, 25 July 2016. /Bashinform News Agency, Ksenia Kalinina/. The first six months of 2016 were characterized by a series of global temperature records. Due to this, it can be predicted with a high degree of probability that the entire current year will be the warmest on record. This is testified by the data of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), «Izvestiya» newspaper reports.

June this year was the 14th consecutive month, when the temperatures were above the average both on land and in the ocean. This is the 378th consecutive month, when the average global temperature exceeded 20 degrees. Last time it fell below this figure more than 30 years ago.

The Roshydromet Agency marks that the first half of this year was the warmest in Russia in the last 35 years.

"In my estimation, the warming in Russia occurs approximately twice as fast as global,” said the Head of Laboratory of Climatology, Institute of Geography RAS Vladimir Semenov. “We have a lot of terrestrial areas, and these processes go faster there. We live in higher latitudes, which also have its influence. Climatologists call this "Arctic amplification". Is this good or bad for us? In many ways, in my opinion, it is a positive factor. Winter becomes softer; it will be possible to be engaged in agriculture in such areas where earlier it was hard to do. It is quite a real forecast that in 30 years we will see the Arctic ice-free in summer. This again brings certain advantages - for example, it will be easier to solve transportation issues. But at the same time we will face other challenges - permafrost thawing may carry a certain environmental hazard".