Flooding like this hasn't happened in 160 years: St. Petersburg faces a July cyclone

A warm atmospheric front is passing St. Petersburg, but an active cyclone is already approaching the city from Finland. The northern capital will first find itself in the southern part of the vortex, and then in the rear. St. Petersburg's chief weather forecaster Alexander Kolesov noted that the movement of air masses looks atypical.

“In connection with the passage of the cyclone, a strengthening of the strongest westerly wind is expected, which is not typical for the summer period, I am not talking about squalls now,” the weather forecaster reported on his Telegram channel .

The wind will begin to increase in the morning of July 4 and will continue throughout the day. In the Gulf of Finland and the Neva Bay, gusts of up to 25 m/s are expected, in St. Petersburg itself - up to 20 m/s. On the night of July 4, short-term rains and thunderstorms are possible. This cyclone with large differences in atmospheric pressure and significant cold advection in the Leningrad Region will provide a surge of water to the city.

“The flood is expected around 6-9 am on July 4, the maximum rise of the probable flood water to 170-190 cm will be a little later, before lunch,” the forecaster said.

The press service of the Complex of Protective Structures (KZS) of St. Petersburg believes that the water may rise above the +200 cm BS mark. Due to the threat of flooding, maneuvering of the gates will begin on the evening of July 3.

Thus, for the first time since 1865, conditions for flooding are developing in St. Petersburg in July. Kolesov called this a historic moment for the city. It is noteworthy that the last July flood was the only one in the history of meteorological observations. Then the water rose to 186 cm.

Another interesting detail: July 3 was the warmest day since the beginning of summer. The air warmed up above +24.8 degrees. Before that, the warmest summer day was June 5 — +23.5. Already on July 4, the temperature will drop by ten degrees, said weather forecaster Mikhail Leus .

The head of the Meteo forecasting center , Alexander Shuvalov, warned of further bad weather . On Saturday, Petersburgers will be able to breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy the good weather, but on Sunday a zone of precipitation will arrive, which will be long and heavy, and thermometers will show only about +15 degrees. The next portion of heavy rains will hit St. Petersburg on Tuesday. Strong winds will come with them. The forecaster did not rule out that the monthly precipitation norm could be met in the first ten days.

Flooding in July could be the first in 160 years, but rising water levels have been seen periodically in other months, with six such events recorded in the past two years alone.

BS — Baltic Height System or Baltic Mark, the counting of which is carried out from zero of the Kronstadt tide gauge. 0 BS — average long-term sea level in Kronstadt. When the water rises to +160-170 BS, flooding of embankments is possible, at +200 — water comes out onto the streets, from +300 — historically catastrophic floods, of which there have been only three (the last one — in 1924). The absolute record was set on November 7, 1824 — +421 BS. Several hundred people died, the elements destroyed part of the city.

Vladimir Semenov, head of the climatology laboratory at the A. M. Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics, told Abzats that the predicted flooding does not pose a danger, but such phenomena are more typical for autumn than summer. In his opinion, there is no threat to St. Petersburg residents, and protective structures will withstand the impact of the elements.

While St. Petersburg is preparing for flooding, Moscow is basking in the sun. On July 3, the thermometer will show up to +26 degrees, and in the Moscow region - up to +27. Leading specialist of the Phobos weather center Evgeny Tishkovets noted that there has not been such warmth for almost a month. On Friday, the capital region will experience short-lived thunderstorms, which will bring the daytime temperature down to +21 °C.

The real warmth will come next week, when warm air masses from Europe, languishing in the heat, invade the expanses of the Russian Plain. On Monday, the air will warm up to +27 degrees, on Tuesday - already to +30, and on Wednesday, thermometers may show even higher.

"This will be the first 'thirty' this summer, but not for long. Subsequently, the temperature background will drop by several degrees and will ideally correspond to the climate norm of the top of the summer," Tishkovets said .

The water element is attacking not only the Northern capital, but also the Far East, where cyclones have created a real "climate madness". Thus, in Transbaikalia, where drought lasted for several months and large-scale forest fires broke out, heavy rains fell. Water flooded several settlements and washed away roads. The level of local rivers rose significantly, and some dried-up streams turned into turbulent streams. From June 30 to July 2, in some places more than two months' worth of precipitation fell.

The bad weather moved on, and today it raged in Khabarovsk. It was difficult to see anything behind the wall of rain, and the strong wind changed direction in seconds. Fallen trees blocked traffic on the roads, cars and structures were damaged, streets were flooded, and power outages were observed. Khabarovsk residents noticed that the dome of rain quickly went away, and after a few minutes the sun began to peek out. Local residents shared eerie footage of the weather apocalypse.

Meanwhile, a tornado swept over Blagoveshchensk. The storm swept away everything in its path, but ended as suddenly as it began.

By the way, today a tornado hanging over the ground was observed in another part of the country - in the Rostov region. Fortunately, the funnel cloud did not descend on populated areas.

Meanwhile, two storm warnings have been announced in Primorsky Krai, Vostok Media reports. The first is due to abnormal heat up to +37 °C, exceeding the norm by seven degrees. This weather will last from July 3 to 8. On July 6, an active atmospheric front will arrive in the region: in 3-6 hours, 50 mm of precipitation or more will fall in places, and the wind will accelerate to 22 m/s.