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Russia’s Coldest City Gets Two Months Worth Of Snow In Just 5 Days And Their Photos Look Surreal (30 Pics)
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Unless you live in Florida, there’s no winter wonderland without at least a tiny bit of snow. Even a couple of inches will do the job as long as it gives you time to take a snowy selfie. And there’s nothing more fun than having the first snowfall of the season, as we all suddenly transform into little kids putting our hectic adult lives on hold.
But on the other side of the world, in Russian Siberia, people ain’t “dreaming of a white Christmas” like Sinatra’s song. You see, in Norilsk, which is the northernmost city of Russia, people face continuous darkness for 45 days each year with temperatures dropping as low as -27.4°F in February.
And now, the city has been drowning in a constant five-day snowfall. The Krasnoyarsk hydrometeorological center reported that there has been a whopping 194% of the monthly precipitation falling in the past week. On top of that, the locals have to deal with icy wind gusts reaching 22-27 meters per second.
The pictures from the Siberian snowland speak for themselves, and as fun as they look, one cannot help but wonder how the locals deal with all this. From digging up their cars to having the road signs swept up by snow, this takes survival skills Bear Grylls would be proud of.
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Norilsk is situated 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle and is known as a place of brutal extremes. It’s the coldest and one of the darkest places in Russia, since starting from the beginning of December, the locals face the perpetual night of polar winter. The night usually lasts from about November 30 to January 13. Beyond the city, which is populated with around 175,000 people, there’s the uninhabited wilderness of northern Siberia.
Te city is not only famous for its freezing climate, it’s also one of the biggest producers of pollutants, “turning an area twice the size of Rhode Island into a dead zone of lifeless tree trunks, mud, and snow,” according to The New York Times. Norilsk Nickel company is the world’s largest producer of palladium and a major supplier of metals like copper, nickel, etc.
The New York Times reports that “at one point, the company belched more sulfur dioxide a year than all of France.” As a result, Norilsk’s Daldykan river, which runs the plant, has turned red.Most locals spend their leisure time indoors, especially during the winter season.
The cold gets so severe here that freelance taxis have been a booming business, with locals too cold to walk outside for even short distances. Buses also exist, but waiting outside for one until it arrives may be impossible, so it’s not uncommon to hide in a nearby shop and wait for the bus to come.
Call the Knight Bus from Harry Potter. I'm sure it could blow right through that snow
Note: this post originally had 45 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
This much snow may look fabulous, but it can cause a lot of troubles (electricity grid, railways, roads...). I would love to have some snow too (last winter was too mild in my opinion), but this may a bit too much. On the other hand, people there probably know well how to deal with it.
In most places where this much snow may fall, I take it for granted that the electricity cables are below ground. The chaos caused by two months of snow falling in a couple of days is just inevitable, there will be stories told for years about this.
Being a lifelong Florida resident, I've always wondered what one would do if the power went out in conditions like that. I guess a kerosene heater that doesn't require electricity would work, provided the carbon monoxide doesn't kill you.
Blankets, fleece clothing, A fireplace can help, if designed or modified to do so.
Uncommon Boston easy
kajoo good
Uncommon Boston ?
Kajoo and legendfirespark, you are right, my answer does come across as smug. It wasn't intentional. I can handle cold, but heat makes me physically ill. Since New England gets hit by a fierce storms every once in awhile, I have supplies. Much of my camping and outdoor clothing would help.The little things are taken care of, wind up radio, etc. 35 years ago I lived illegally in a fire station at timberline in Colorado. As a child we lived in North Dakota for a few years. I paid attention and I am still interested learning more about survival. Lots of books. I like cold snowy winters, but am realistic. There were a few items recommended that I didn't have, in February I got them. So this is easy for me. I should be more understanding of people who have never experienced real cold. Probably the most important thing is knowing who has generators. With snow shoes I can get almost anywhere. But again, how many people have snowshoes in their basement.
Been a long time since I’ve seen enough snow to do that, but I’ve been through a lot of ice storms that coated power lines and knocked the electricity out for several hours (inconvenient but really pretty—-the tree branches look like crystal chandeliers when the sun hits them). A fireplace, enclosed porch with storm windows, big candles, and a barbecue grill with a side burner are real lifesavers when it happens. We were able to have a warm fire, cocoa/tea/coffee, a hot dinner, and enough light to see what we were doing, to get us through til the lights came back on.
Along with the blankets and fleecies, make sure you're wearing a hat (makes quite a difference) and felt slippers. Stock up on candles and get a gas stove and a barbecue lighter. The stove isn't for heat, but to make something warm to eat/drink. The lighter is to light the hot plate, since most gas stoves now use an electric spark to get going. Put whatever in the fridge/freezer you might want to get to frequently in a styrofoam cooler out on your balcony (only going to work for city dwellers - wouldn't do that up North! :) ). Ah memories of the 1997 ice storm in Quebec!
Yeah, the ventilation might be blocked from the outside.
Include Celsius, boredpanda, ffs. You are a European site with lots of European users, why do you convert temperatures in Russia to Fahrenheit and leave out Celsius completely??
Or maybe both, just to cover all the bases?
Well, if you include something it normally implicates that you use both, yes.
I hate it when it starts melting...
This much snow may look fabulous, but it can cause a lot of troubles (electricity grid, railways, roads...). I would love to have some snow too (last winter was too mild in my opinion), but this may a bit too much. On the other hand, people there probably know well how to deal with it.
In most places where this much snow may fall, I take it for granted that the electricity cables are below ground. The chaos caused by two months of snow falling in a couple of days is just inevitable, there will be stories told for years about this.
Being a lifelong Florida resident, I've always wondered what one would do if the power went out in conditions like that. I guess a kerosene heater that doesn't require electricity would work, provided the carbon monoxide doesn't kill you.
Blankets, fleece clothing, A fireplace can help, if designed or modified to do so.
Uncommon Boston easy
kajoo good
Uncommon Boston ?
Kajoo and legendfirespark, you are right, my answer does come across as smug. It wasn't intentional. I can handle cold, but heat makes me physically ill. Since New England gets hit by a fierce storms every once in awhile, I have supplies. Much of my camping and outdoor clothing would help.The little things are taken care of, wind up radio, etc. 35 years ago I lived illegally in a fire station at timberline in Colorado. As a child we lived in North Dakota for a few years. I paid attention and I am still interested learning more about survival. Lots of books. I like cold snowy winters, but am realistic. There were a few items recommended that I didn't have, in February I got them. So this is easy for me. I should be more understanding of people who have never experienced real cold. Probably the most important thing is knowing who has generators. With snow shoes I can get almost anywhere. But again, how many people have snowshoes in their basement.
Been a long time since I’ve seen enough snow to do that, but I’ve been through a lot of ice storms that coated power lines and knocked the electricity out for several hours (inconvenient but really pretty—-the tree branches look like crystal chandeliers when the sun hits them). A fireplace, enclosed porch with storm windows, big candles, and a barbecue grill with a side burner are real lifesavers when it happens. We were able to have a warm fire, cocoa/tea/coffee, a hot dinner, and enough light to see what we were doing, to get us through til the lights came back on.
Along with the blankets and fleecies, make sure you're wearing a hat (makes quite a difference) and felt slippers. Stock up on candles and get a gas stove and a barbecue lighter. The stove isn't for heat, but to make something warm to eat/drink. The lighter is to light the hot plate, since most gas stoves now use an electric spark to get going. Put whatever in the fridge/freezer you might want to get to frequently in a styrofoam cooler out on your balcony (only going to work for city dwellers - wouldn't do that up North! :) ). Ah memories of the 1997 ice storm in Quebec!
Yeah, the ventilation might be blocked from the outside.
Include Celsius, boredpanda, ffs. You are a European site with lots of European users, why do you convert temperatures in Russia to Fahrenheit and leave out Celsius completely??
Or maybe both, just to cover all the bases?
Well, if you include something it normally implicates that you use both, yes.
I hate it when it starts melting...