February Reminds Russians of What True Winter is Like: Freezing Temperatures and Falling Snow
Moscow is experiencing an extreme polar invasion. Some have already relaxed and said goodbye to winter, but February reminded them what a real Russian winter feels like. First, this month gave us a two months' norm of snow, Today Moscow faces abnormal frosts for the end of the season. Temperatures will average ten degrees below normal. There is an orange level weather warning for the region.
Who has ordered cold winds from the Kara sea and when we can expect spring? Zhanna Karpenko reports.
Andrey Chereshnev: "I will cover it up, and it'll heat it up".
The weather is cold while the season is really busy. At least, for Andrey. A few years ago in abnormal colds he found the way to heat up the frozen car with a fan heater, now he gives services to everyone in need. It all started with his friend's truck, which had to set off on a long trip. But the gas oil in the tank froze.
Andrey Chereshnev: "One morning my friend called me, he said he couldn't start the engine. We came and heated him up".
It takes two hours to heat up a truck. If the car has smaller dimensions, a blow drier will do. It has the same operating principle as a fan heater. The instructions of this Moscow woman are very popular online.
Those drivers who had the luck to start the engine, and drive to the city, faced another problem: icy roads — the real days of tinsmiths, the drivers were warned to keep the distance.
Andrey Obraztsov: He was so close all of a sudden, I hit the brakes, and…
- The road is slippery, right?
- Perhaps, it's a bit slippery.
Utility providers have just coped with a heavy snowfall when they faced new problems. Ice and icicles. The fight against icing on the roofs is a difficult task. It is not enough to fence the sidewalk, you have to remove all the cars. The managing company in Usievich street decided not to bother itself. Workers threw down frozen blocks right onto the cars. Locals begged them, threatened them, and even jumped into the fight.
"I told you! I'll mess you up".
This outcry was heard. After checking those responsible were punished, and some employees were even fired.
Again, the weather made utility workers the main characters of internet videos. Locals saw such yard-keepers in Moscow streets. Form, inventory, everything was in its place. African guys, who cleaned the snow, looked like a mirage in a desert. It turned out that these were the students, who organized a volunteer clean-up, and took away the snow close to their University.
But the homeless suffer the most in such weather. As soon the temperatures fall down up — 10 C, social care locations fill up.
"One can wait through the cold here, have some food, live through this heavy season, there is some assistance here".
"A big crowd comes here. Tomorrow we'll have 9 meals, can you imagine".
These are the ones who got just the right weather — the ice swimmers. Freezing temperatures just strengthen sensations.
Nataliya, Winter swimming Club: "The greater the contrast, the stronger the perception. When a man comes out of an ice-hole, He steams, he feels hot. He is an absolutely happy person".
Vladimir Lobodin, ice swimmer: "Some body areas may get red, but it means that this is a rush of blood, a rush of blood to the main parts of the body".
The distance of this ice-hole is 25 meters, it had been cleared off the ice in advance, and it is open for ice swimming now.
Someone waited until the frost came. And now this person can use the moment and set a record. Oleg Ryazantsev is going to set his 12th world record for surviving in extreme cold. He's going to test himself for freezing tolerance for over 30 minutes. He'll spend 12 minutes under the rain crust
"Oleg, 20 seconds".
Oleg is going to set his record in the Arctic region. But he is training in Moscow.
- Have you been waiting specifically for such frost?
- I ordered them!
The order has been taken. The coldest weather awaits Moscow region on Sunday night. The temperatures would fall up to — 32 C.
Roman Vilfand, Hydrometeorological Centre: "Air masses come to European part of Russia from Taimyr, from Novaya Zemlya, not even from the Barentsev sea, but from the Kara sea."
Frost and sun is the weather forecast for the central region till the end of February. The freezing temperatures would step back in March up to -10 C, However, it may set a temperature low record for the first spring month.
African students confess that within 5 years they spent in Russia they learned the Russian language, but they couldn't get used to Russian frosts.
Zhanna Karpenko, Savely Mantyukhin, Timur Altynbaev, Oleg Dobin and Olga Turchininova. A week in the city.