Russia is warming up twice as fast as other regions due to global warming, warns the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Against the backdrop of global warming, the territory of Russia is heating up twice as fast as other regions, and the trend towards a warm climate will continue, head of the Russian Academy of Sciences Gennady Krasnikov said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

“In general, Russia is warming up twice as fast as other territories. This will lead to many sharply continental phenomena: the number of such uncharacteristic phenomena as tornadoes, when there is drought in one place and floods in another,” the academician said.

According to the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian climate scientists today make long-term forecasts, for 5 years in advance. “They cannot be precise by day, but in general they are able to characterize the year... For now we will follow the current trend - that is, an increase in heat,” Krasnikov added.

Answering a question about the peak of the El Niño phenomenon, which some scientists predict in November, Krasnikov recalled that this current has been known for decades, and there have been many forecasts. However, not all of them came true, because it is very difficult to give an accurate forecast due to the complexity of the models.

“I don’t know how much they have already been calculated today, taking into account many factors. You also need to look at the Earth as a whole - the salinity of water, its temperature, other currents. The fact that changes will occur is definitely the only question, in what period of time,” the academician warned.

El Niño is a natural phenomenon in which water temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean rise to abnormal values. Such warming changes the interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere and could trigger a chain of climate shifts across the planet.

In July, a magnitude 3.3 earthquake occurred near the caldera of the Yellowstone supervolcano in Wyoming, the strongest since the beginning of the year, preceded by 11 other weaker tremors. According to recent estimates by scientists, the giant may be closer to eruption than expected. Speaking about the risk of a supervolcano eruption in Yellowstone, Krasnikov recalled that scientists or journalists sometimes like to add sensationalism.