With warm winds sweeping in from the Mediterranean and North Africa, Moscow is on course to experience an Indian summer with record warm temperatures this week, weather forecasters said.
Amid rain showers, the daytime temperature is expected to warm up to 13 to 15 degrees Celsius on Wednesday and Thursday and hover between 7 and 13 C at night, the federal weather bureau said.
Tuesday's highs were expected to be around 9 to 11 C.
The rain will stop as African winds arrive on Friday, and the daytime temperature is expected to peak at 18 C over the weekend, drenching the city in balmy weather that it typically experiences in mid-September, the weather bureau said.
Chances appear high that a new temperature record could be set on Oct. 18, 19 or 20. The all-time high for Oct. 19, for example, is 16.2 degrees C and has been held since 1881, according to local news reports.
The weather bureau warned, however, that an Indian summer was not necessarily good news because it promises to bring changes in the atmospheric pressure that could cause Moscow residents to feel unwell.
"Unusual weather, even the kind that at first glance seems good, is not necessarily well received by city residents because of significant variations in atmospheric pressure," it said in a statement. "Therefore it's worth paying extra attention to your own health and that of your loved ones."
It also said unseasonably warm weather inevitably leads to unseasonably cold weather — and that when winter arrives, it would be "substantially colder."
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