Moscow last month experienced its hottest September in 176 years, scientists from the Meteorological Observatory at Moscow State University (MGU) have said, marking the third-warmest September since records began.The average temperature in the Russian capital this September reached 15.5 degrees Celsius, surpassing the historic average of 12.2 C by over three degrees.

Temperatures climbed higher only in 1847 and 1792, making last month the warmest September since the reign of Tsar Nicholas I, who ruled over the Russian Empire from 1796 to 1855.While early methods of measuring air temperatures may lack the precision of modern meteorological techniques, MGU scientists emphasized that any potential overestimation of past temperatures is unlikely to exceed more than a few tenths of a degree.At the same time, last month was the fifth-driest September in Moscow's recorded history, with the Russian capital seeing six times less precipitation last month than on average.The unusually warm and dry weather came after a balmy summer, with heatwaves engulfing 80% of major cities across Russia, the Esli Byt Tochnym data project reported last month. The longest-lasting heat waves were recorded in the cities of Kazan (14 days), Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (13 days), and Astrakhan (12 days), according to estimates by the analysts. Russia, which is warming 2.5 times faster than the rest of the world, saw scores of temperature records broken in Siberia and northern parts of the Far East this summer.This September was the hottest on record in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland and Switzerland.