“I SURVIVED MOSCOW--- SUMMER 2010”
This phrase best summarizes how we feel at the end of the summer months. Since the middle of June Moscow has experienced what is being described as the worst summer, weather wise, in their history. It started out with a heat wave that ended up lasting over 60 days. Whereas the median temperature in Moscow during the summer is 72 F, this year the average temperature was over 90 F. For 10 days we even had temperatures over 100 F. Even the traditional changing of the guards at Red Square had to be canceled due to the heat.

But the heat wasn’t the only battle we were facing. During the heat wave Russia witnessed over 500 fires. For us the significant fires were located just outside the city. Moscow was built around swamps. In the early 1900s many of these swamps were drained and the peat was used for heat. Once natural gas was discovered in Siberia in the 1950s the peat bogs were abandoned. The consequence of draining the bogs was that they are ripe for fire. Once the fires started in the bogs, smoke began to billow into the city (This picture is Red Square during one of the smoky days).

In order to keep the acrid smoke out of the apartment, we were forced to shut all our windows. But with the temperatures in the upper 90s we felt like we were living inside an oven. Fortunately we had fans for each room (Moscow, a city of over 14 million, sold out of all fans!) to keep the inside air circulating. We also were able to borrow a small one-room air conditioned that we promptly set up in our bedroom.

And that is how we survived the smoked filled summer of 2010.