| Moscow is preparing for new frosts Residents of the capital region, who have only just managed to start their cars and turn off the heaters over the past week, will once again face the test of cold. Frosts are returning. Yesterday, weather forecasters announced another cold snap. “The cyclone, which passed through Moscow and caused snowfalls, descends to the south, develops in height and will be a sedentary whirlwind; in its rear, a new portion of cold air from the northeast will arrive in the European part of Russia,” this is how the deputy director explained the climate disposition Hydrometeorological center Gennady Eliseev. In practice, it will look like this: already on February 1, frosts in the Moscow region will reach 18-20 degrees at night and 14-19 degrees during the day. Further, according to the forecast, the frost is getting stronger: on February 2, the night temperature in the Moscow region will drop to 19-24, in some places to 27 degrees below zero, and during the day the cold in the region will reach minus 14-19 degrees. On Friday-Saturday it will become even colder: at night 21-26, during the day 15-20 degrees below zero.
According to Mr. Eliseev, the amount of precipitation that has fallen in the region is still below normal, but in the coming days the amount will increase. True, heavy snowfalls are not expected. And the Moscow weather bureau still notes: “In the entire history of weather observations in Moscow, such analogues have not been found. The current frosts are striking not so much in their intensity as in their duration. Having captured Moscow on January 16, they only loosened their grip for a few days, and now they are tightening their grip again.”
The cold snap, which the Hydrometeorological Center calls “noticeable,” will once again return residents of the region to extreme conditions. In Moscow yesterday, the city operational headquarters even resumed its round-the-clock work, and all prefectures were instructed to maintain constant contact with the Ministry of Emergency Situations. According to the first deputy mayor, head of the Municipal Services Complex Pyotr Aksenov, all services have been instructed to once again carry out total checks of the readiness of the capital’s municipal facilities for “return frosts.” The Moscow Housing Inspectorate should have checked yesterday whether attics, basements and entrance doors were properly closed, and whether emergency crews were ready in case of unforeseen situations. In the city, underground sewers were insulated to prevent freezing of utility lines. “All emergency services will be mobilized again, repair teams will be strengthened and will work around the clock,” Mr. Aksenov said.
It is noteworthy that the city authorities promise to learn lessons from the first wave of cold weather and listen to the criticism of Muscovites who believe that the victorious reports of officials after the Epiphany frosts were somewhat premature. “We took into account citizens’ complaints about the cold in buses, trolleybuses and trams on days of severe frost from January 16 to 23,” says Pyotr Aksenov. “Now transport workers will check all heating devices, the tightness of closing doors and windows in the rolling stock.” In urban transport, according to him, there should even be special “heat controllers” - mobile line control teams that will check not passengers’ tickets, but “whether Moscow buses, trolleybuses and trams are heated enough.”
As for heat in living and working spaces, energy workers are optimistic. Speaking yesterday on the Ekho Moskvy radio station, Andrei Trapeznikov, a member of the board of RAO UES of Russia, promised that there would be no restrictions on energy consumption this time. “Meteorologists do not promise such a strong cold snap as before, so we hope that the upcoming cold weather will pass normally,” Mr. Trapeznikov noted. He said that after the frosts subsided, the operation of the equipment was checked, identified defects were eliminated, and the necessary repairs were carried out. The main problem during prolonged frosts, according to him, is the “cooling effect,” when “buildings cool down and more and more heat is required to maintain the temperature, while the heating plant cannot cope with such a volume and residents begin to turn on electric heating devices.” Therefore, now the temperature of the water supplied to heating plants is specially heated two to three degrees above the standard. Irina BELASHEVA |
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