MOSCOW, December 3. /TASS/. The outgoing year 2017 is likely to be the warmest one in Russia over the entire history of weather observations, director of the Hyrdometeorological Center of Russia Roman Vilfand told TASS on Sunday.
"According to the calculations of the Center’s specialists, average air temperatures in the 11 months of 2017, i.e. in January-November inclusive, were the highest over the entire period of observations," he said, adding that the biggest deviations from the norm were registered in Russia’s northern regions.
"Depending on the locality, air temperatures there deviated from the norm by 2.5-3 degrees. It is an incredibly big deviation," he noted. In European Russia, average air temperatures were by one degree above the norm.
"So far, the year 2017 is the warmest year over the entire period - 130 years - of weather observations in our country," Vilfand said.
According to Vilfand, weather forecasts predict that air temperatures in December will also be higher than usual, especially in Asian Russia. "So, we can expect the outgoing year 2017 to be the warmest one in history," he said.
He said these data fit well into the calculations of global warming which is most felt in middle latitudes. "Our country is located exactly in these latitudes. Calculations of specialists demonstrate that this year is going to the third in terms of an averaged air temperatures across the globe and the warmest one in Russia," vIlfand added.