Moscow was walloped by a powerful winter storm between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, bringing heavy snow and strong winds that created treacherous road conditions and led to flight delays and cancellations.
Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the Russian capital was expecting more than 70% of the monthly average snowfall throughout Thursday alone.
“Winter is breaking all records. The snowfalls are relentless… Snow will continue throughout the day, the night, and into tomorrow,” Sobyanin wrote on Telegram.
Meteorologists said snow cover in Moscow stood at 175% of the daily average snowfall for Feb. 19, but it still fell short of a daily record broken in 2024. Blizzard conditions are forecast to continue into Friday morning, they said.
“The situation is extremely difficult, but I’m confident the city will manage,” Sobyanin said.
The city’s Transportation Department urged Muscovites to use the underground metro instead of driving to save time and free up road space for snowplows.
Traffic monitoring services said morning commuters faced significant delays in the city center along the Garden Ring, as well as the Third Ring Road and the Moscow Ring Road.
Several major traffic accidents involving at least 10 vehicles were reported on the M-4 Don highway near the Moscow region town of Stupino, south of the capital.
Civil aviation authorities said 33 flights at Moscow airports had been either canceled or delayed for more than two hours as of Thursday morning.
Like much of Europe, Russia has been facing an especially frigid and snowy winter due to a disruption of the Polar Vortex, a large region of cold, rotating air above the North Pole.
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