Russia’s South Hit by Record Low Temperatures, Center Says

Abnormally low temperatures continued to hit Russia’s south with temperatures of 4 degrees to 6 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees to 10.8 degrees Fahrenheit) below the norm, the Federal Hydrometeorological Center said.

Today’s temperatures of minus 19.1 degrees Celsius in Volgograd in the Southern federal district, and minus 16 degrees Celsius in Vladikavkaz in the North-Caucasus federal district are the lowest for this date since 1993, the weather center said on its website. In Makhachkala, which is in the North-Caucasus district, the minus 13.6 degrees Celsius temperature is the coldest registered since 1889, it said.

In the Black-Earth Tambov region in central Russia, the temperature hit a 1998 record and was minus 19.2 degrees Celsius, the statement said.

Winter crops are “not in a very good shape” in southern Russia because of the weather conditions, Alexander Korbut, the Grain Union’s vice president, said yesterday.

The center did not comment on how the weather might affect winter crops.

To contact the reporter on this story: Marina Sysoyeva in Moscow at msysoyeva@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Deane at jdeane3@bloomberg.net