Nearly 600,000 people in southern Russia have been left without electricity amid an abnormal heat wave that led to a spike in energy consumption, the Energy Ministry said Tuesday.
The power cuts have affected the Rostov region (324,000 people affected), the Krasnodar region and the republic of Adygea (181,000), and the Astrakhan region (94,300).
"Energy workers in these regions are conducting emergency restoration efforts," the ministry said in a post on its Telegram messaging app channel.
The Phobos weather center’s Tuesday report said that temperatures reached 39 degrees Celsius in the city of Rostov-on-Don and 38.5 C in Krasnodar.
Moscow and its surrounding region have also been hit by high temperatures over the past week.
Last week, temperatures in the Russian capital hit 32.5 C, beating the record set in 1917, said the Rosgidromet weather center.
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