Intense fires continued to rage in western Russia on August 4, 2010. Burning in dry peat bogs and forests, the fires produced a dense plume of smoke that reached across hundreds of kilometers. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) captured this view of the fires and smoke in three consecutive overpasses on NASA’s Terra satellite. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC

By Ekaterina Shatalova and Maria Kolesnikova
Aug 6, 2010 6:57 AM PT Acrid smoke from forest and peat-bog fires east of Moscow shrouded the city in smoke, causing flight delays and raising pollution to “very dangerous” levels. As many as 140 flights were delayed today as visibility at the capital’s airports was reduced to as little as 350 meters (1,148 feet) this morning. Visibility improved “significantly” in the afternoon and planes “gradually began to return to airports and fly out,” Sergei Izvolsky, a spokesman for the Federal Air Transportation Agency, said by telephone. Carbon monoxide in Moscow’s air rose to as high as 4.8 times the admissible maximum level before tapering off slightly toward evening, the city’s environmental protection department said on its website. The Health Ministry advised Russians to stay indoors, limit physical activity and wear a mask when venturing outside. Emergency crews are battling 558 fires covering 179,596 hectares (693 square miles) across Russia, the Emergency Situations Ministry said on its website today. So far this year, fires have scorched 729,761 hectares, an area about three times the size of Luxembourg, according to the ministry. The fires have killed at least 52 people, the Health Ministry said. The smoke plume from Russia’s fires spanned about 3,000 kilometers (1,860 miles) from east to west as of Aug. 4, according to the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “If the smoke were in the United States, it would extend approximately from San Francisco to Chicago,” NASA said on its website yesterday. Temperatures as high as 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit) will continue to plague central Russia and along the Volga River, where the fires are concentrated, at least through Aug. 8, the state Hydrometeorological Center said on its website. “Extreme” fire danger is forecast for many regions, the center said. … Agriculture is the hardest hit part of the economy, with the government declaring a state of emergency in 28 crop- producing regions and grain yields down 20 percent this year. Agriculture accounts for about 4 percent of gross domestic product, according to Moscow-based VTB Capital. …

Moscow Inundated by Smoke as Russian Heartland Burns