The Moscow heat wave has broken a fourth record, with temperatures of 33.2 degrees Celsius (91.76 degrees Fahrenheit) on Friday.

This is 0.4 degrees Celsius higher than temperatures recorded on the same day in 1885.

For the past four weeks temperatures across western Russia have topped 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit), killing scores of people and creating what is thought to be the worst drought in the country since 1972.

Such long periods of summer drought have been registered before (there was one in 1936) but over the past few years they have become more frequent.

The highest number of temperature records has been noted around Moscow. Temperatures near Domodedovo and Bykovo airports, to the southeast of the capital reached 38 degrees Centigrade (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit).

Russian meteorologists say the 2010 summer is one of the three hottest on record.

MOSCOW, July 23 (RIA Novosti)