Pious Russians Pray For Rain: Dramatic Storms End Draught

Editor: Since praying for rain for the last few weeks, the terrible drought and wildfires will be brought to a close, none too late for the people of Moscow and St. Petersburg. Hopefully, it will help save at least part of Russia's harvest which will be severely hurt by this summer's meterological extremes.

Read further at interfax, here...

Russia 's record-breaking heatwave looks set to come to a dramatic end, with a severe storm now heading for Moscow after battering St Petersburg.

[Pravda] Nearly 100,000 people around St Petersburg were left without power, rail services were halted and trees felled amid high winds and heavy rains. Moscow is expected to be hit later. Temperatures there dropped to 25C on Monday after nearing 40C for weeks, BBC News says.

The storms yesterday in four regions, including the Leningrad region around St. Petersburg, packed winds as high as 30 meters per second (67 mph), the Emergency Situations Ministry said on its website today. Almost 79,000 people still had no electricity at 6 a.m. local time, and all customers should have power back by 8 p.m., the ministry said.

Read the rest here, at Pravda...