2010 Russian wildfires
| 2010 Russian wildfires | |
|---|---|
Smoke over western Russia on 4 August 2010
|
|
| Location | Russia |
| Statistics | |
| Date(s) | late July 2010 – early September 2010 |
| Burned area | 300,000 hectares (740,000 acres) |
| Land use | villages, farmland, woodlands |
| Buildings destroyed |
2,000 |
| Fatalities |
54 in wildfires |
54 in wildfires
The 2010 Russian wildfires were several hundred wildfires that broke out across Russia, primarily in the west in summer 2010. They started burning in late July and lasted until early September 2010. The fires were associated with record-high temperatures, which were attributed to climate change—the summer had been the hottest recorded in Russian history—and drought.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declared a state of emergency in seven regions, and 28 other regions were under a state of emergency due to crop failures caused by the drought. The fires cost roughly $15 billion in damages.
A combination of the smoke from the fires, producing heavy smog blanketing large urban regions and the record-breaking heat wave put stress on the Russian healthcare system. Munich Re estimated that in all, 56,000 people died from the effects of the smog and the heat wave. The 2010 wildfires were the worst on record to that time; in 2012, however, new wildfires broke out, and they proved even more extensive and damaging.
During 2010 Russia experienced dry, hot weather starting around late May and lasting until early June. Temperatures of 35 °C (95 °F) first occurred after 12 June, which alone was an abnormality for the country (average mid-June temperatures seldom rise above 30 °C (86 °F)). In late June, Russian regions such as the Eurasian Sakha Republic, as well as areas of partial taiga, had temperatures of 38–40 °C (100–104 °F). The warm ridging pattern then slowly moved westward to the Ural Mountains, and by July settled in European Russia.
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