Moscow Prepares for Power Cuts as Arctic Freeze Worsens

[Karmadillo]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aWjGDfEu2m6Y&refer=top_world_news

Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Moscow is preparing for power cuts as temperatures head toward 30 below zero Celsius, a five-decade low.

Utility RAO Unified Energy System told customers that disruptions to non-essential customers were possible, affecting as much as 2 percent of consumption in the Moscow region, according to a statement yesterday. Reporters at the Moscow Times, an English-language newspaper, yesterday worked by candlelight for three hours as its energy supply was curtailed.

``If there are power cuts again like the ones back in May, there will be street protests,'' said Viacheslav Nesterenko, a 37- year-old engineer, referring to spring power losses in parts of Moscow and two regions after a substation fire. ``It's a real winter.''

The electricity shortage hasn't diminished energy exports from Russia, the world's biggest oil and gas producer. The country's 2005 budget surplus was the highest in the past six years because of rising oil and gas prices.

Even so, Russia is struggling to generate steady electricity supplies to Moscow from the network of Soviet-era power plants and transmission lines. Temperatures may drop below minus 30 Celsius (-22 Fahrenheit) within the next two days, the Russian Meteorological Bureau said in a statement on its Web site.

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[Delphinus]

1. Wow!

We've not seen winter temps like that this season, have we? I know here in the Midwest it doesn't seem much like winter. I feel so sorry for them - especially if their power gets cut.

[Sal Minella]

4. Over the years I've noticed Moscow frequently has mild winters

while we (Iowans) are in the deep freeze and vice versa -- I remember, when we were having sixty-below wind-chill, hearing on the radio that Muscovites were out in their shirtsleeves in their mild winter weather.

[HereSince1628]

2. Thats getting too cold in Moscow to skate outdoors.

Might as well wrap your theirt in blanket shards and put on the birchwood booties, and go ice-fishing.

Do you suppose Russian ice-shanties have satellite tv like they do in Bemidji? TV-1 has got to carry the Olympics don't you suppose?

[Sequoia]

3. Doesn't look like it to me.

Tents of ice fishermen sit on the frozen Moskva River on the outskirts of Moscow, where temperatures have plunged over the last couple days. Two people died of exposure, and 14 more were hospitalized.

SF Gate Day in Pictures

http://www.sfgate.com/

[winter999]

5. Where's Global Warming

when you need some? :evilgrin:

[NickB79]

6. Ironically, global warming will cool Europe

So this could be a sign of things to come.

By heating the Arctic, large volumes of fresh water are dumped into the Arctic Ocean. The cold, heavy freshwater flow disrupts the thermohaline cycle that keeps the Atlantic conveyor belt going and Europe warm. Warm water is brought up from the equator, releases its heat along the European coast, cools and flows back toward the equator to reheat. Disruption of this cycle will have disastrous effects. If you look on a globe, you'll see that London is further north than New York City, yet they can grow certain species of palm trees outdoors in London!

[Delphinus]

7. Thanks, NickB79.

This is the part (the cooling) of global warming that we have to educate people about.

[TheBaldyMan]

8. I was chatting online to a rusky last week - it was -40

i think it's the same in fahrenheit and centigrade, damnably cold any way. The coldest temp I've ever experienced was -27'C. Brrrr.

[NickB79]

9. I recall one winter it dropped to -40F here in central Minnesota

I think it was the winter of 1996. Wind chills dropped the percieved temp down to -60F or so. Schools were closed throughout the state simply because it was too cold for children to go out safely to wait for the buses.

That same week up on the Minnesota-Canada border, the town of Tower, MN recorded an STILL AIR temp of -60F! I can't even begin to comprehend what it would have felt like with a bit of wind thrown in.

Since then though, we barely hit -20F's anymore. This winter we have yet to reach anything below -10F. The past few weeks we've been in the upper 30's and lower 40's!