Experts Puzzled by December Weather Anomaly in Russia

Weather forecasters have so far been unable to explain December’s unusual warm spell, the head of the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring said Wednesday. “Extreme deviations in weather patterns have been observed before, but over the past decade they have been more and more frequent,” Alexander Bedritsky said, adding it will take about 30 years to understand the anomalies.

He said four all-time high temperature records have been registered in Russia since the start of December.

He also said the number of weather phenomena dangerous both to humans and to the economy has been rising since the mid-1990s, at a rate of approximately 6% a year.

Bedritsky said weather temperature has risen 1 degree Celsius (33 degrees Fahrenheit) over the past 10 years.

“Our forecast for 2005-15 predicts that temperatures will continue to rise,” he said.

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