UK Firefighter Goes to Siberia. By Bike.

If you ever wanted to do something meaningful and outstanding, let Kaleb Debbage be your role model. Kaleb is a firefighter in UK. He took a long vacation and his bike and went East. Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Croatia, Serbia, Balkans, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, then Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tadjikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan.

At the moment he is in Semey (aka Semipalatinsk) near Russian border, enjoying his time and waiting for his Russian visa to start.

Kaleb writes an exceptionally detailed and entertaining blog with many pictures: http://www.iskaleb.com/

Earthquake Hits Entire Russia

Today is a big, unique day.

At 5.44 UTC something shaked really hard 600km deep under Okhotsk Sea in Kamchatka. This is Russian Far East, one of the most remote regions of Siberia accessible only by helicopters and such funny devices:

(photo by Netwind - a great site, recommended).

This is where it happened (feel free to zoom out)


View Larger Map

Magnitude of the shake was 8.3 (max is around M10) but its depth was about 600 km, which makes it one of the deepest earthquakes ever recorded. Such deep earthquakes happen very rarely, maybe once in a century, that's why we know very little about their nature.

Another unique fact of this quake was the distance where it was felt. Responses were coming from as far as Dubai - that's humble 8999 km! Illinois, California, Indonesia and India felt it!

Indeed, in Russia a lot of people felt it. Siberian seismic stations even issued a report about an earthquake in Sayan mountains, I even mentioned it on Twitter. In Moscow 900 people were evacuated.

Me? I did not feel it, nor any of my friends. Feeling a bit disadvantaged.

You want to ask about weather? Well, feels like autumn or monsoon season. Rains, rains, rains.

One more great event today - lenticular clouds right in my window:

They are considered quite rare and usually form in the mountains.

Well, that's it for today. Weekend is promised to be chilly but dry.

First Forest Fires in Siberia

Snow is almost gone almost everywhere, and it means that the danger of forest fires is back. Every summer vast areas of Siberia and Russia are covered with smoke from huge fires surrounding cities. Entire villages burn to ground if they appear on the way of fire. Usually forests burn because someone has thrown a burning cigarette.

A special project has been started to monitor forest fires on the Internet: http://fires.kosmosnimki.ru. This is a current snapshot of the situation.

As you can see, the worst situation is right near Baykal. A state of emergency has been declared in that region: more than 10,000 hectares of forest burn there with over 70 individual fires. 

May 1 in Novosibirsk

Labor Day on May 1 is now celebrated in a way very similar to the USSR times. Same organized demonstrations with flags and banners like "Workers of plants and fabrics support the party".

Speaking of weather - clouds, windy, some rains :)

Main square in front of the Opera House. Check the Sochi olympic counter.

Hailstorm

We just had a very strong hailstorm.

First it looked like someone messed up badly out there.

Then it started.

Then it finished.