Climate risk planning for floods and droughts with a hint of Noah and Joseph

A team of researchers investigated the impact on health from floods and droughts between 2010 – 2020. Flooding can be caused by heavy rainfall, storm surges, tsunamis, snow and ice melt or damage to water infrastructure. Health impacts include injuries from flooding including collapsed buildings, floating objects, toxic water with increased pathogens. Regular flooding can…

1.5ºC annual average warming predicted in Russia over next 30 years

Vladimir Semyonov is Deputy Director of the Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The Russian News Agency TASS reported from a recent press conference summarising the current climate atmospheric position based on the Institute’s science. The Institute is an IPCC contributor and collaborator: According to him, the warming will be…

Permafrost and cryogenic monitoring in the western Russian Arctic.

Permafrost is currently analysed by reviewing temperatures at different layers compared with air and ground surface temperatures, depth of freezing and thawing, as well as overall coverage including snow and vegetation. Mean annual air temperature (MAAT) and mean annual ground temperatures (MAGT) are a widely used source of analysis with the practical measurements being completed…

Green canopies in the urban Russian Arctic

The majority of residents in cities in the Russian Arctic are not indigenous to the area (approx 95%), mostly migrating from the south and west. They are not used to Arctic ecosystems and the Arctic climate with lower temperatures, permafrost, less rich soil and having to adapt to differing light with polar days and nights….

Feeling the burn in the Volga

Warmer climates have increased the frequency and volume of forest fires across Russia, even in areas which have snow cover. About 98% of forest fires in populated Russia were estimated to be caused by human activity and in more remote areas, approximately 50% caused by thunderstorms and lightening. The researchers reviewed the risks and effect…

Biting back at humans with climate change

A human disease called dirofilariasis caused by parasitic mosquitoes has been affected by the warmer climate in Russia,  expanding north and east, currently 58° N  (Kondrashin et al., 2022) in both European and Asian Russia. Researchers developed a map using data from the Russian Meteorological office between 1937 and 2016. The data shows long term average…

Distilling hard and soft water strategies in climate adaption policies

Despite Russia’s rich freshwater resources, it faces significant water problems, which arise from the country’s adaptation policy with low priority to climate action and less advanced risk management. Safonov from NRU HSE, Moscow outlines the key characteristic of water-related problems in the world’s biggest country. Firstly, Russia is one of the world’s leaders in its…