Rains to bring little heat relief to European Russia

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Periodic rains and thunderstorms on August 17-19 are unlikely to bring much relief to drought-hit European Russia, national weather forecasting service data showed on Tuesday.

The data confirms recent forecasts provided by the service's officials, who did not expect an immediate reversal of the weather's negative impact on the agriculture sector, where drought has destroyed a quarter of the grain crop.

Hot and mostly dry weather is expected in most of European Russia, with rains and thunderstorms in the centre and along the Volga and night frosts in the north, the data on the service's website http://meteoinfo.ru showed.

Strong heat, with temperatures of 31-36 degrees Celsius (87.8-96.8 Fahrenheit), is expected in the central part of European Russia with periodic rains and thunderstorms.

Showers and thunderstorms are expected on Tuesday in the regions along the Volga river, but heat with temperatures up to 39 degrees will return in the following days, it said.

In the south of the European part of the country the weather is expected to be hot and dry with strong rains in the North Caucasus on August 17-19 with no heat relief.

In some regions of the northern part of European Russia night frosts with temperatures of minus 2-3 degrees are expected.

Rains and thunderstorms are expected in the Urals, Siberia and in the country's Far East, the service said, without providing temperatures.

The threat of new fires will remain strong in some regions in the north-west and most of the south of European Russia, as well as along the Volga.

(Reporting by Aleksandras Budrys; Editing by Alison Birrane)