In search of ways that could have helped prevent the tragedy, authorities are first looking at weather forecasting: the Ministry of Natural Resources has proposed a plan to expand the existing system of forecasting.

The plan includes several steps: first, the number of weather stations collecting data is to be increased from 1600 to 2300. This will help to more closely monitor more than 30 environmental indicators in the atmosphere and water. Also, the equipment in these stations is to be updated every five years.

“Our first objective is to know exactly what is happening in Russia in terms of the weather. Then, we will use new super-computers to analyse this information and use mathematical models to forecast the weather far in advance,” Dr Aleksandr Frolov, from the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environment, told RT. “The problem today is that five-to-seven day forecasts are the maximum we can do.”

Experts, however, say that the main problem is a lack of communication and transparency between the ministries responsible for monitoring the environment.

“The big problem today is not just that different weather agencies in Russia have different data sets, but also that they interpret these data sets differently,” Vladimir Slivyak, from the Ecodefence International Ecology Group, told RT. “So the task is to unify all the weather data and all forecasting instruments to create a single weather agency – one that is free and convenient to access over the Internet.”