Scores die in record Russia freeze

[lovuian]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WEATHER/01/20/russia.cold.reut/index.html

MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) -- Russia's coldest winter in a generation killed seven more people overnight, lifting the death toll in Moscow to 123 and putting huge pressure on the Soviet-era heating and power network.

"The Moscow energy system has never sustained such a load," Anatoly Chubais, chief executive of state electricity monopoly Unified Energy System, said on Friday.

Temperatures in the capital have plunged to a 26-year low of minus 30 Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit) and Chubais was quoted by RIA Novosti news agency as saying that electricity consumption hit a record on Thursday.

Exports of gas and electricity have been cut back to provide for increased domestic demand, and the exceptionally cold weather in Siberia has halted oil production in many places.

more...
Russia is the world's second largest oil exporter and supplies a quarter of Europe's gas and they had to shut down production... Europe is really feeling the oil crunch...

[mom cat]

1. i've been in that kind of weather and it is frightening. I really

feel for them.

[barb162]

6. I have been in a bit colder than this , like -32 and it is miserable

you pray your car starts, etc

[mom cat]

11. I was in an old log cabin at -30...The only thing that saved me was a

homemade wood stove!

[smirkymonkey]

2. I remember when I was a child, back in the late 70's, temperatures

would frequently go to 20 below. I think the record was 40 below or maybe colder. All our pipes froze, you couldn't breathe outside, cars wouldn't start - it was unreal, but I thought it was kind of cool at the time (this was in the Adirondacks.) I also remember 6 foot snowbanks too - we used to dig tunnels in them!

However, I can't imagine going through that without the proper heat - luckily we had fireplaces and a wood stove. I think that these low temperatures might prompt nations into finding alternative sources of heat instead of waiting until all the fossil fuel sources have been nearly depleted.

[lovuian]

3. These temperatures are incredible and it shows

Russia has its problems too on gas even though they have the reserves...

[AgadorSparticus]

4. i remember those temps too growing up in minnesota.

i remember when it got up to above zero and we'd go outside thinking it was so warm. lol not anymore. some other thread said that montana has buttercups blooming right now. how crazy is this?

[barb162]

7. I remember this one day in the early 90s and the high was -13

and when it went to above zero I thought that was almost warm

[barb162]

8. I think all the super cold went to the eastern hemissphere the last

few weeks and that's why the US has ben warmer than normal

[AgadorSparticus]

14. I think so too. my mom's friend's relatives in korea said that this has

been an unusally cold winter for them too. They don't remember it ever being this cold. I wonder if it will get back to normal...

[barb162]

5. I thought it gets colder than that there; whatever ,I feel

so sorry for them as there the heating systems aren't probably very adequate

[Briar]

9. At least the Soviet-era

heating is keeping people warm. The current, free market powers-that-be are leaving the homeless and drunk out in the cold to freeze to death.

[Brundle_Fly]

10. I live in Calgary Alberta Canada

and I have seen the worst at minus 47 (-52 F) celcius, it was like being on mars, with the windchill it was around minus 70 celcius (-94F)

Minus 30 (-22F) is not something all that odd for us here, I remember entire february's that were minus 30 or worse, but our electricity and heating grids are second to none. I cannot imagine having to tough it out without the high western standards of human existence.

[THUNDER HANDS]

12. meanwhile, here in NY it was 65

go figure. :shrug:

[smirkymonkey]

13. I know - it's like early Spring here today!

However, what is so unusual, is the volatility of temperatures. Swings of 40 degrees or more from one week to the next. One day, it went from the mid 50's to the high 20's that night. I have almost always lived in the Northeast - with the exception of 5 years in San Francisco - and I have never seen a January like this. Bizarre.