Heavy rains fall over western Russia, helping firefighters combat remaining wildfires
By APFriday, August 20, 2010
Heavy downpours help Russia’s firefighters
MOSCOW — Heavy rain has drenched the Russian capital, helping firefighters battle the remaining wildfires on the city’s outskirts.
A cold front that hit western Russia has ended a two-month heat wave and cleared skies over Moscow from suffocating smog.
Temperatures in Moscow fell from 32 degrees Celsius (nearly 90 degrees Fahrenheit) to 9 degrees Celsius (48 degrees Fahrenheit) in just two days.
Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry on Friday reported new success in the battle against the country’s forest and peatbog fires. They now cover some 9,000 hectares (some 22,000 acres), or less than a 20th of the territory they swept earlier this month.
Russia’s worst heat in 130 years had triggered thousands of wildfires in Russia.
