A severe winter has firmly arrived in Russia, Reuters is reporting. Siberia is experiencing record cold temperatures, and Moscow recently had a record amount of snow dumped on the city.
“Temperatures in parts of Siberia plummeted to minus 56 degrees Celsius (minus 69 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday [December 4] while blizzards blanketed Moscow in record snowfall and disrupted flights as winter weather swept across Russia,” Reuters said. “In the Sakha Republic, located in the northeastern part of Siberia and home to Yakutsk, one of the world’s coldest cities, temperatures fell below minus 50 C, according to the region’s weather stations.
“In Oymyakon, an area in Sakha, the temperature was recorded at minus 56 degrees Celsius on Monday evening,” Reuters continued.
With the wind and humidity the wind chill was even colder.
8,300 kilometers south and east of Yakutsk, in Moscow, record snow fell on December 3.
“In the Russian capital, some of the biggest snowfalls ever seen on Dec. 3 left swathes of Moscow blanketed in drifts of more than 35 cm of snow in just one day,” reported Reuters. “Temperatures in Moscow and the region around the capital were forecast to fall to about minus 20 C later this week, …[and] in the Urals, temperatures are forecast to fall to minus 40 C this week.”