Catastrophic flooding in the Irkutsk Region, Siberia, Russia. Climate change.
Catastrophic flooding in the Irkutsk Region and the Krasnoyarsk Territory of Russia (since June 25, 2019)Siberia, Russia
Now back to the topic of large-scale flooding in Siberia. At the Irkutsk University identified the causes of the devastating cataclysm. According to Siberian scientists, the flood was caused by anomalous and rare coincidence. For details, see our meteorologist, Elena Volosyuk.
Elena, what happened?
Hello!
Scientists of the Irkutsk University analyzed synoptic maps and mesoscale models, and came to the conclusion that a unique situation has developed in the western regions of the Irkutsk region. In the lower and middle troposphere, 3 dissimilar air masses met: the arctic, subtropical, and extremely rare in this region humid air from the Pacific Ocean.
The period of maximum precipitation and river level rise, which was observed on June 25-26, 2019, coincided with the release of the first tropical cyclone this year. It is these vortices that determine the most intense heat and moisture flows from the oceans. According to university meteorologists and physicists, in conditions of inhomogeneous relief in the Irkutsk region, prone to floods, powerful convective clouds and, as a result, intense precipitation have manifested themselves in development.
Inna Latysheva, Associate Professor of the Department of Meteorology and Physics of Near-Earth Outer Space, Geographical Faculty, Irkutsk State University, reports:
- Diverse air masses arrived in our region. They reinforced the contrast of these fronts. The Arctic air mass from the north, subtropical air, extremely rare for our region, transformed into polar, and from the east, from the Pacific Ocean, Pacific air flowed in strong currents. Thus, these combinations of factors, extremely rare for our region, provoked an emergency situation. and were a key catalyst for the scale of the catastrophic process.
Rains in the Irkutsk region really turned out to be extreme. At the same time, in the city of Tulun torrents were record. This in June has never happened here in the entire history of meteorological observations. The rivers rapidly began to overflow, and as a result of intense downpours, more than 30 thousand cubic meters of water came from each square kilometer of the floodplain. For comparison, this volume of water can completely fill a giant train of 250 tanks.
The magnitude of the flood is clearly visible from space. The first picture shows the city of Tulun on June 19, before the onset of the cataclysm. The river Oia runs through the city as a thin thread. The next picture was taken on June 30th. The river Iya overflowed and half Tulun disappeared under the water. The city is almost completely flooded. You can get from one part of the city to another only by boat or boat.
Another vivid example is the city of Nizhneudinsk. This city was one of the first to take the blow of the elements. This is how the city looked from space on June 27th. On the next frame Nizhneudinsk July 1. From the banks came the river Uda. At the beginning of the flood, the water level in the river rose by almost 2 meters per day. Water rushed to the regional roads.
In the middle of the week, the front sections will not be able to break through to the shores of Lake Baikal. They will spoil the weather in the Kuznetsk Alatau and in the mountains of the Western Sayan. It will rain here every day. Precipitation will be mosaic, local, but their intensity is expected to be different. Given the characteristics of mountain rivers, the water level in which quickly rises after a heavy rain, the flood situation in the region remains difficult.
Thank. Elena Volosyuk told about the reasons for the large-scale flood in Siberia.
The territory covered by the flood occupies a distance of 500 km, and an area of 139,446 km², equal in size to the state of Nepal. The water rose in the left tributaries of the Angara River - in the rivers Oia, Uda, Chun, Biryusa, Taseev, Kan, Oka.
Zima, Taishet, Tulun, Nizhneudinsk, Kuytun, Chunsky districts of the Irkutsk region suffered. 6 669 houses and 6 847 garden plots were flooded. On the territory affected by floods, lives 32,777 people. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, on July 1, 18 people died, 1,300 people sought medical help, 200 of them were hospitalized.
Video sources:
- Россия 24
- База-Х