Satellite monitoring showed a significant drop in the number of wildfire hotspots on the Russian territory with only 359 registered on Thursday, according to the ScanEx website that receives information from two NASA satellites.
The Aqua satellite, equipped with an atmospheric infrared sounder, and Terra, equipped with a thermal emission and reflection radiometer, registered 359 hotspots from fires across Russia on August 11, compared with 494 just a day earlier.
The satellites also registered significant increase in hotspots in worst fire-ravaged Ryazan and Moscow regions, where the number of wildfires grew from 12 and 14 to 69 and 41, respectively.
"It does not mean that wildfires have spread so rapidly. Yesterday vast parts of these regions were covered by clouds. So today's information should be compared to Tuesday's data, when the sky was clear. A total of 127 hotspots were spotted near Ryazan and 68 near Moscow then," ScanEx director Vladimir Gershenzon told RIA Novosti.
A scorching heat wave has gripped much of European Russia since mid-June, which coupled with the worst drought since the 1970s has made the countryside particularly susceptible to wildfires.
Thousands of emergency workers and military personnel have been working round the clock for almost three weeks to fight the fires in 22 regions, which have so far killed more than 50 people and left over 3,500 homeless. The immediate economic cost of the fires has been estimated at $15 billion.
MOSCOW, August 13 (RIA Novosti)
