Urban Climate Research in the Russian Federation in the 21st Century

This review is an analysis of high-profile papers that have appeared in the last two decades that analyze the characteristics of climate and microclimate of cities in the Russian Federation from different perspectives. It is divided into five subsections: from the impact of climate change on air quality and the recurrence of hazardous weather events to the characteristics of urban heat island, the impact on energy and thermal comfort conditions for the population, and the climate of cities in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. It is noted that more than half of the papers are devoted to studies of the climate of two cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg, which can be explained by the geographical institutional affiliation of the research teams conducting the studies. On the other hand, among Russian cities with populations of over a million, there are also those that have not been subjected to close climatological study (in the periodic scientific literature) in the last two decades or more (e.g., Samara). All the abovementioned features point to a lack of studies of urban climate from the beginning of the 21st century to the current moment at different spatial scales.