Russia: Heat also rises for parched Kremlin

[Jefferson23]

Aug 6, 2010

ZAVYALOVO, Udmurt Republic - Farid Valitov, the head of a large farm in this Volga district republic, stands in the middle of a field filled with wilting stalks of feed corn.

Pulling one from the parched ground, he looks dejectedly at its stunted roots and says this summer's record-breaking heat wave will have dire consequences for his farm and livestock.

"There's nothing here. Rain wouldn't even help at this point. There won't be any food to feed the animals," says Valitov, who tends more than 800 cows and 1,700 other animals on his farm. "We're trying to find as much hay for them as we can. As of today, we're about 60% short on feed, so we'll have to cull almost half our livestock. It's going to be a hard winter. Our farm has already lost 41 million roubles ."

Snip* Deadly blazes
In Russia, the unrelenting heat - with temperatures reaching as high as 39 degrees Celsius - has caused more immediate challenges. Most notably, it has sparked dozens of massive forest fires that have destroyed hundreds of houses and killed at least 34 people in a number of Russian regions, including the Moscow suburbs.

in full: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/LH06Ag01.html

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. For those of you who don't speak Celsius

39° is about 102°F.

[applegrove]

2. Yup. Global Warming is now.