Moscow breaks second all-time heat record in a week as the city remains shrouded in smog

Moscow sweats as second heat record set

MOSCOW — Moscow on Thursday broke its all-time temperature record for the second time in a week as Russia continued to sizzled in a stubborn heatwave and forest fires elsewhere forced evacuations and ravaged provincial homes.

In Moscow, the mercury hit 100 (37.8 Celsius) on Thursday, beating by a fraction a record set on Monday, the country’s news agencies reported.

Muscovites have been urged to skip work and stay indoors due to the heat and potentially dangerous smog from peat bog fires outside the city.

Forest fires continued to burn around Moscow and the rest of the country, with firefighters battling a total area of 212,506 acres (86,000 hectares) ablaze, the Emergencies Ministry said on its website.

In Voronezh, 300 miles southeast of Moscow, state television pictures showed the evacuation by ambulance of a city hospital. Channel One said more than 800 patients were transferred to other facilities as flames approached the city’s outskirts and thick smoke lowered visibility.

The Interfax news agency reported that the 340 homes were destroyed in a village near Nizhny Novgorod, around 250 miles east of Moscow.