Moscow is cold. “It’s a snow apocalypse”, alarmed Russian public television on Sunday, as record snowdrifts more than 30 centimeters high rose in the streets of the Russian capital, disrupting road traffic and causing disappear the sidewalks.
“These are February snowdrifts” in the middle of December, said the Fobos meteorological center, assuring “never in the history of meteorology have snowbanks of this size been seen” in the streets of Moscow on 18 December.
Several buses blocked
About 119,000 people and more than 12,500 vehicles were deployed to clear the snow, according to Moscow City Hall. “There is so much snow that several buses are blocked on the roads (…) and desperate passengers get off to continue their journey on foot,” commented the television channel Ren-TV.
The sidewalks were almost entirely hidden by snow in certain districts of the city, the clearers being responsible, according to the Moscow authorities, to take care above all of the snow removal of the roads and approaches to public transport stops. More than 50 flights have also been canceled at Moscow airports due to the bad weather, according to airport authorities.