"Moscow is one of three world meteorological centers, along with Washington and Melbourne," Anatoly Yakovlev said. "The strike would affect the weather services in all northern hemisphere countries, including Europe and the United States," he added.
Yakovlev said the quality of the weather forecasts would deteriorate dramatically, because they would have to be based on archive data rather than a daily analysis of atmospheric fronts. "It will put the public at risk and force airports to cancel some flights," he added.
He also said the union to which the meteorologists belong sent a letter this week to Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin demanding payment of the 80 billion rubles ($17.7 million) owed to the meteorological service.
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