Devastating Russian wildfires

Fire season in the western US seems to have been checked by regular rain/thunderstorms. Most of the nation has not seen any sizable fires yet this year, staying below Preparedness Level II thus far. The torrential downpours have been an almost daily occurrence for the last 2 weeks in Missoula. Everyone seems to comment on the mild summer we've seen so far. There hasn't even been a day that busted 100, I can dig that.

But over in Russia, the conditions have been quite the opposite. --

Moscow health authorities announced Monday that the number of deaths per day in the Russian capital had nearly doubled to 700 as the city and most of central Russia entered the seventh week of a heat wave. High temperatures, hovering around 100 degrees on some days, have destroyed 30 percent of the nation's grain crops and triggered massive fires in forests and peat bogs that alone have killed more than 50 people and devastated dozens of villages. - From the Seattle Times article



Another article on Russian smokejumpers