Siberia registers its warmest recorded spring sparking new fears for rapid climate change

Some parts of Siberia were warmer than usual by 6C, with a host of anecdotal examples of normal meteorological rules being turned on their head. For a few days in late April, for example, the city of Irkutsk boasted higher temperatures than Madrid. 

The ice on vast Lake Baikal was too thin or non-existent even in February and March, forcing the cancellation of a number of events. 

In the past, it was safe to drive cars across the frozen lake, the deepest in the world.

In the Far East, in Sakhalin, bears woke earlier than usual, fooled by the early heat. The same happened thousands of miles to the west in Tomsk region. 

Wild fires were engulf large tracts of Siberia and the Russian Far East as early as March. 

By 25 March, a state of emergency was imposed against fires in the Transbaikal region.

Worse came in the Republic of Khakassia, and across both regions more than 30 people were killed, along with 3,200 domesticated animals. 

In late May, forest fires in the parched Republic of Buryatia and Irkutsk Region were 2.6 times larger than average.

Climate monitoring by the Hydrometeorological Centre of Russia indicates spring 2015 was the warmest in the entire 125-year history of regular meteorological observations.

The risks are the more natural disasters, for example flooding and wildfires.

Experts say these will be not only more frequent, but more powerful and destructive especially in spring and summer.

Then there is the threat of melting permafrost, resulting in the release of poisonous gases frozen for thousands of years.