On Saturday, beaches were overcrowded, and the water warmed up to plus 25 degrees Celsius. However, by evening, thunderstorms and squally winds began. Within 24 hours, nine people died at water bodies in the Moscow region. A section of the Moscow Ring Road was flooded, and trees were downed in the city.
On Sunday, July 13, the Moscow Region Ministry of Emergency Situations reported nine deaths at water bodies over the past day. Saturday`s heat sharply changed to storm-force winds, heavy rain, and thunderstorms. Videos of lightning striking the water appeared online.
After a week of intense heat, people occupied all city and suburban beaches starting Saturday morning. The water temperature reached plus 25 degrees Celsius, which is higher than in the Black Sea in July. Even paid recreation areas were overflowing. Here`s what Business FM was told about prices at Soho Country Club:
“Could you please tell me how much entry and a sun lounger cost?” “Indoor parking is 2,000 rubles, outdoor is 1,000. For a sun lounger with a towel: you go through face control and pay. It`s 4,000 today. This is a full-day rental per person. Everything is available: restaurant, summer kitchen.”
In the first half of the day, the shores and water were truly packed – even where swimming is officially prohibited. Svetlana, a resident of Reutov, shared:
“This is the Factory Pond, a very old, beautiful place, an area. It`s like a small Winzavod – little shops, cafes in the middle of the lake, a fountain, pedal boat rental. Sun loungers are free. Swimming is prohibited, but everyone swims.”
At the Pirogovskoye Reservoir, enterprising citizens figured out how to charge money for driving onto a formally free territory. But even this did not stop the flow of holidaymakers. The most principled found another way. Maxim, a Muscovite, said:
“We arrived at the Pirogovskoye Reservoir, at our spot. We`ve been swimming there for several years, and there`s a barrier in front of us: 500 rubles per person. That is, if I drive in with two people in my car, plus the car, that`s 1,500 rubles. I consider this self-seizure. We moved to another place, there are people with tents here. The road is bad because local residents try to dig it up, but enthusiasts still come with tents and have been here since Thursday, some since Friday. There`s a lot of food, tents everywhere, nowhere to park a car. We did something simpler – we inflated SUP boards, took everything with us, put the dog on a SUP, and left. Four hours later we returned, and there were even more people, it was hard to get to the car. We loaded up and left.”
Those who did not swim voluntarily were forced to do so. After lunch, Moscow was hit by a thunderstorm with heavy rain – according to meteorologists` calculations, three buckets of water per square meter. Drainage systems could not cope; rivers literally flowed through the streets. A section of the Moscow Ring Road (MKAD) went underwater. Drivers complained that the water on the 16th kilometer reached the height of the barriers.
In several districts, trees were felled, some onto cars. People hid in underpasses and at bus stops, pedestrians on Patriarch Ponds and Arbat waded ankle-deep in water, and the exodus of holidaymakers from Serebryany Bor went viral on Telegram channels – they stood in line for a bus under pouring rain, covering themselves with inflatable mattresses and towels. Taxi prices soared: instead of 1,500 for a usual route, it was 6,000–8,000, said Business FM employee Ilya Balakin:
Ilya Balakin, Business FM employee: “A lot of people were getting out from the beach, many were resting by the water bodies, and apparently the high demand is precisely related to people`s need to get away from the water during the hurricane.”
Neither Yandex nor other weather services warned about the upcoming thunderstorm. However, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Hydrometeorological Center were quite prepared for it, says Meteoweb project weather observer and meteorologist Alexey Safonov:
Alexey Safonov, Meteoweb project weather observer, meteorologist: “Warnings about thunderstorms – and quite strong ones – were issued by both the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Russian Hydrometeorological Center for Sunday, Saturday, and Monday. The extent to which it was unexpected and the great contrast – that`s what likely surprised those who experienced it. It really looked very epic. The thing is, everyone usually checks the temperature. But by evening, everything changed very quickly, as it happens in summer. We were in a zone of atmospheric flows where very rapid thunderstorm development is possible – this is called an instability zone. That`s exactly what we got into yesterday. So, there was a forecast. Such rapidly changing weather will persist next week as well.”
An orange level weather danger warning due to the heat is in effect in Moscow until July 14.
Rupert Blackwood 
Clement Ashworth