Your Next Summer Holiday Destination: SIBERIA

Extreme summer heat turns Siberia into giant beach

[link to rt.com]

Not even Siberia, usually associated with freezing temperatures and icy landscapes, has escaped Russia's heatwave.

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“We work 12 hours a day here,” said Oleg Lednyev, lifeguard. “We have such long, cold winters that people just want to lay out. The hours between 3 and 8 o'clock can be a problem, they're the hottest, and it's exactly when the most people are here at the beach.”

Like one particular veteran of 50 Siberian summers…with no air conditioning.

"It's impossible to stay at home,” said Nadezhda Karpenko. “It's too hot. I can’t breathe in the flat. There is just no air. It's been like that since May. The climate is changing. It's like Siberia is becoming a part of Southern Russia.”

Weather experts say maybe not like Southern Russia, but so far this summer, Siberia is pushing the thermometer both directions.

“The situation in Siberia is very diverse,” Dmitry Tiktyov, Deputy Director, of Hydrometcenter told RT. “I mean both hot and cool records are now broken. Omsk is located in between the cold center and the heat of Yakutia. It’s a unique region in a way. The contrast between summer and winter is overwhelming.”

But there are people who are working in this weather instead of enjoying it. After a minor set-back when their cab overheated, the RT crew found Viktor Dyakov and his daughter toiling in their soil 12 kilometers outside of town, where the snows of the steppes make way for… potatoes.

“As you can tell by my face, it’s very hot now, more than 30 degrees,” explained Victor Dyakov, Siberian farmer. “Weeds are growing quickly, and we’re fighting them. You can grow anything here if you’ve got the skills. We have very good black soil; and we have more sunny days than in St. Petersburg.”