The warm spell, which is more typical for the October-November period in this part of the country, began in December and continued into January, with the mercury climbing to 8 degrees Celsius (46.4 Fahrenheit), a 50-year high, January 10.
"January 10, with a temperature of plus 8, was the warmest in the first 10 days of January in the entire history of meteorological monitoring in Moscow," the hydro-meteorological bureau for Moscow and the Moscow Region said.
The bureau said Muscovites would be able to enjoy the unusually warm weather for at least another 10 days, with a brief sub-zero spell.
"The temperature will continue to rise because a strong southwesterly wind is bringing more warm air to the capital," an official with the meteorological bureau said.
Another record has been registered in Nizhny Novgorod in the Volga Region, beating the 1971 high with the temperature climbing to 3.9 degrees Celsius (38 Fahrenheit).
"At that time [in 1971], the temperature during the day rose to plus 3.5 degrees Celsius (36.5 Fahrenheit), but this year it reached plus 3.9 degrees, beating the previous record by 0.4 degrees," a local meteorology official said, adding that January is considered the coldest month of the year in the region.
The current high temperatures in some cities of European Russia have led to never-before-seen phenomena, including blossoming flowers and swelling buds in the city of Kursk, 370 miles southwest of Moscow.
"Such a winter was only registered in the Kursk Region about 50 years ago when the average December temperature was 0.5 degrees Celsius (32.9 Fahrenheit)," Maria Polyokhina, deputy head of the hydro-monitoring center in Central Russia, said, adding that, unlike Moscow, Kursk had had no snow this winter whatsoever.
Warm weather and strong winds contributed to a new flood in St. Petersburg yesterday, with water in the Neva River, which flows through the city founded in 1703 by Emperor Peter the Great, rising 2.2 meters (7.2 feet) above the control mark.
Basements and ground floors were flooded in several buildings in the downtown area, including a medical center on the Fontanka embankment. The Fontanka, Karpovka and Angliiskaya embankments were all flooded.
Last year, conversely, most of Russia was gripped by bitter cold as temperatures plummeted to minus 34°Celsius (minus 29.2 Fahrenheit) on the night of January 19-20, beating the minus 32°C (minus 25.6°F) record registered for the same day in 1927.
