It’s warm and sunny in Syria – and conditions are perfect for flying fighter jets and launching airstrikes, according to a weather report broadcast on Russian state television.



“Russian aerospace forces are continuing their operation in Syria. Experts say the timing for it was chosen very well in terms of weather,” said the forecaster in a segment aired on Rossiya 24 on Sunday, standing in front of a screen showing a Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jet with the words “flying weather”.

The weather forecast then jumped to aerial footage released by the defence ministry showing targets in the Syrian countryside being peppered by Russian bombs as a crosshair moves over them.

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Russian jets have flown more than 100 sorties over Syria since the beginning of an aerial campaign ordered by president Vladimir Putin last week, dropping bombs and missiles on bases, weapons caches and even a training camp for suicide bombers, according to the defence ministry. Unsurprisingly, coverage on Russian state television has been relentlessly positive.

“October in Syria is an advantageous month for flights,” the forecaster said, noting that the average wind speed is only 2.4 metres per second and rain typically falls once every 10 days. Although there are on average 13 cloudy days, this “shouldn’t pose a serious obstacle to the operation” since clouds are generally 4km to 6km above the ground and won’t affect weapon targeting systems.

“In these meteorological conditions, planes can dive below the clouds and conduct effective strikes on ground targets, and only climb higher if there’s active anti-aircraft fire,” she said in front of a graphic depicting a Sukhoi Su-24 strike aircraft dropping bombs on an enemy tank from the “optimal height for targeting and bombing”; 3km to 5km off the ground.

According to the announcer, sandstorms could threaten the Russian air campaign but they rarely happen in October. 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.

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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.

In a state television appearance at the weekend, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, argued that no one could identify the “moderate opposition” supported by the US in Syria and said reports of airstrikes hitting targets other than Isis were part of information warfare against Russia. The country’s major news channels, all of which are state-controlled, have portrayed the Syria strikes as an anti-Isis campaign and shied away from reports of civilian casualties and attacks on other rebel groups.