I love the smell of burning peat in the morning

[Gr.Viper]

...it smells like roasted cow pats.

 

Some beautiful pictures of the lovely state of the "air" over my city

http://en.rian.ru/photolents/20100726/159952609.html

 

And a brief English description of what the F is going on there

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Moscow-Peat-Fires-Rage-Amid-Record-Heat-Temperatures-In-Russian-Capital/Article/201007415672014?lpos=World_News_First_Home_Article_Teaser_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15672014_Moscow_Peat_Fires_Rage_Amid_Record_Heat_Temperatures_In_Russian_Capital

 

You know what's funny? Those bogs burn every really hot summer in dry weather and no one collects that peat anymore (all the companies went belly up). Yet every single time is apparently comes as a surprise that the air gets crappy.

 

A chart from a week ago. The number of fires has increased since but troop numbers stay abysmally low.

[Abhi]

[Gr.Viper]

This is today's

The Russian Emergencies Ministry says that some 60 new forest and peat bog fires have occurred over the past 24 hours, covering an area of 50 hectares in the Moscow Region.

Alexei Yaroshenko, the head of Greenpeace Russia's Forest Program, said on Monday that the smog covering Moscow and its environs may be present for up to two and half months.

 

The worst thing about a peat bog fire is that it doesn't burn on the surface but smolders deep beneath it, sucking the oxygen from cavities in peat and getting it from the chemical reacton. The areas should've been flooded when the heat started.

Edited July 28, 2010 by Gr.Viper

[Capitaine Vengeur]

[Lexx_Luthor]

How widespread are these smolder fires? Peat is everywhere over there right, and not so deep the smoke gets out?

 

 

CV::

hehe

[Gr.Viper]

Peat fires my ass.. Now there are forest fires and burning houses in villages and small tows all over Central Russia. I'm very happy that wooden Moscow was burned down 200 years ago.

 

[Gr.Viper]

All Cental region is ablaze and over 2000 troops are fighting fires near Sarov Russian Federal nuclear center, former Arzamas-16, sister city of Los Alamos and the location of our nuke museum. Firefighting aircraft can't see s**t in the smoke and drop loads at given coordinates flying quite a long way since there aren't any lange bodies of water nearby. My, is Mother Russia hot this year

[Gr.Viper]

Even NASA got pictures of out fires!

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=45046&src=eorss-iotd&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

 

In other news, the new scare is that fires in the West of Russia, in the areas bordering with Belarus and Ukraine can send back into the air the radioactive particles left there by Chernobyl disaster.