AP: Russia Weathers A Disturbing Warm Winter

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RUSSIA_WARM_WINTER?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME

Russia Weathers a Disturbing Warm Winter

By MIKE ECKEL
Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW (AP) -- It was one of Russia's traditional days for taking a dip and swimmers were complaining - because it was too warm outside. Countless Russians every year mark the Orthodox Epiphany religious feast by plunging into water through holes in the ice and shivering vigorously in the frigid air. On Friday, the ice was either thin or absent and the air wasn't especially cold.

In a country known for brutally cold winters, a spell of unseasonably warm weather has unnerved many people and caused experts to worry about the effects of global warming.

While much of Siberia and the Russian Far East soldiers through the usual long and grindingly cold winter, people in the rest of the country have been lamenting abnormally high temperatures that have left many rivers free of ice, fields absent of snow and weather forecasters confused - but not without hope.

"I'm not ready to give up on winter just yet," said Gennady Yeltsev, deputy director of the Russian meteorological committee.

Last year, much of January was unusually cold, down to 22 below zero. This year, temperatures have generally stayed above freezing in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

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1. weather

That damn Al Gore and his stupid global warming.......................(sarcasm)