Russian TV weather forecast says conditions are ‘excellent’ for bombing Syria

There’s a video going around online of a Russian weather forecaster discussing “good weather for bombing” in Syria.

Watch footage from the forecast below, via The Guardian.

“From today, Syria has become another Russian region and is included on the weather”, commented one Twitter user.

Russian jets have been used to fly more than 100 missions over the country since it was announced last week that Russia would join the fight against ISIS terrorism.

Russian state media coverage of intervention in Syria has been overwhelmingly (and unsurprisingly) positive, despite the fact that only 14 percent of Russians wanted intervention in a recent poll.

“Ms Grigorova then reassured viewers that “[The climate] in October in Syria will very advantageous for pilots”, adding that that wind speed is low with rain will fall roughly once every ten days. She promised that after rainstorms later this week, the weather will be mostly clear and “ideal for military flights” for the rest of the month. Rather she explains that clouds can assist Russian activity as “in such weather conditions, aircraft can dive under the clouds and deliver effective strikes on ground targets”.

Sandstorms could hamper the air campaign, but they don’t happen often in October, according to the broadcast.

The Kremlin has insisted Russia’s airstrikes are directed against Islamic State, but many of them have targeted areas not controlled by the terrorist group in an apparent attempt to push back rebels threatening the regime of Moscow’s ally, Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president.