MOSCOW, January 30 (RIA Novosti) - Exceptionally low temperatures are set to hit European Russia for a second time this winter, Russia's meteorological service said Monday, providing the region's energy infrastructure with another stern test of its resilience.
"The cold will be part of the Scandinavian cyclone, which will bring cold Arctic air to European Russia," the service said.
Temperatures in the central federal district will drop as low as minus 25 degrees Celsius (minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit) on February 1, the forecasters said, with the cold snap lasting until the end of the week.
The mercury in Moscow and the Moscow region will show minus 21-23 Celsius at night, and minus 16-18 Celsius by the middle of the week, according to the forecasts.
The cold spell will be the second this month, with Moscow already having spent a week in the grip of extreme lows. Temperatures in the Russian capital grazed the -32°C (-25.6°F) record for January 19, recorded in 1927.
Energy consumption soared as the cold deepened. Gas fields and storage facilities were unable fully to meet demand, and fuel was released from strategic reserves to help combat the problem. Moscow energy utility Mosenergo had to cut supplies to some industrial and commercial consumers in order to maintain power and heat deliveries to residential customers and key services.
Some regions suffered more serious effects, as systems buckled under the strain. A failure at a local boiler house in the Moscow region town of Tomilino left 26,000 residents without heating.
