This time weather experts think the blackout was caused by smoke from wildfires mixing with heavy rain clouds.
Some 5.4 million hectares of land are ablaze across Russia, mostly in Siberia and the country's far east. Water sprayed by planes to fight the fires is ‘now as expensive as Champagne’.
Some 784,931 hectares of wildfires are raging on permafrost zones including the Arctic in Yakutia - officially Sakha Republic - and the Khanty-Mansi autonomous region, causing possibly irreparable damage to the tundra. Other infernos are sweeping through boreal forests which are known as the lungs of the Northern Hemisphere.
Cries to urgently call state of emergency in Irkutsk region as it chokes in smoke.
Pillars of smoke were filmed over the areas hit by last summer’s wildfires despite the current long spell of extremely cold weather.
The lengthy wildfire season follows a record-hot Arctic summer. People living in Yakutsk are waking up to heavy smog brought from the wildfires raging to the west, east and north; struggling to breathe and with head, eye and throat aches.
With Russia on Covid-19 lockdown, 77 houses were burned down in Novosibirsk and Kemerovo regions.
Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk suffering smoke pollution and infernos rage in forests after hot, dry weather.
The cost of the recent fires has been revealed as Vladimir Putin today visited TransBaikal to assess the damage en route to a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un in Vladivostok
Worrying videos and pictures show how the pristine polar region of northern Yakutia is ablaze.
The fires are now raging some 10 to 15 kilometers from the megaslump crater - a large hole in the frozen Arctic soil which highlights the dramatic speed of thawing permafrost.
Delhi’s Ghazipur landfill site set ablaze due to the release of methane gas, as there many dry leaves on the site at that time and also as the temperature in the city is very high, the leaves caught fire from the gas and set the entire landfill site ablaze. The entire area was covered with smoke.
The Bristol Bay Times - Serving Dillingham, Naknek, King Salmon and Southwest villages
A prolonged heatwave in Siberia is “undoubtedly alarming”, climate scientists have said. The freak temperatures have been linked to wildfires, a huge oil spill and a plague of tree-eating moths.
Australia’s heat waves, now an annual ordeal, have been expanding into new territory — like Tasmania, where more than 50 wildfires were burning as of Friday.
Local charities call for donations after blaze wrecks 500 homes in Alexandra
Deadly blaze that killed four people and forced evacuation of 10 villages is now close to being under control
Ecologist fears the Macleay River may take decades to recover, with heavy rains likely to affect other waterways
Residents fled toward the waterside as winds pushed an emergency-level wildfire towards their homes. The town was shrouded in darkness from the smoke before turning an unnerving shade of bright red.
Elsewhere in Russia’s coldest region desperate authorities spike clouds to induce rain and tame wildfires.
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