By the New Year, most of the country was covered with abnormal cold weather. In Khabarovsk, in the last days of December, the thermometers never rose above -20, and at night they dropped to almost -40.
Severe frosts were noted in all regions of the Far East, the north wind carried icy air here from Yakutia.
In the Sakha Republic, the temperature dropped to extreme values. For example, in Yakutsk on the morning of December 29, the thermometers showed -48, because of these schoolchildren they had to be transferred to a remote location.
The reason for the cold is a powerful anticyclone that has settled over the eastern regions of the country. The high-pressure area for a long time defended the Far East from the attack of cyclones, but on the eve of the holiday it was nevertheless managed to be pushed to the northwest by a whirlwind that unfolded in the zone of the Kuroshio current and hit Japan with powerful snowfalls.
On the other side of the country, on the contrary, nothing reminded of winter. It was as if the velvet season had resumed in Anapa – the sun was so hot that some guests of the resort ventured into the sea. In the Krasnodar Territory, the grass turned green, flowers blossomed. On December 30, in Sochi, the air warmed up to +10, it was even warmer in the sun. Some people even walked the streets in T-shirts.
Meanwhile, in the lower reaches of the Volga and Don and in the Black Earth region, there were heavy snowfalls. In the Volgograd region, due to a blizzard, visibility was reduced to 50 meters, the number of accidents on the roads increased. Volgograd was hammered by 10-point traffic jams, a lot of snow fell, and the utilities did not have time to clear the roadway from snowdrifts. At some point, jeep owners began to turn their cars into snow removal equipment.
In the Middle zone, the cold before the New Year reached its peak. In Nizhny Novgorod it was so frosty that light columns lit up in the sky, the air cooled down to -10. And in Perm at the same time the thermometers showed -17. Against the backdrop of cold weather in Moscow and Tver, one could observe a halo. One night the Russian capital was enveloped in frosty fog. Travel on certain highways was limited, cars were allowed through in small convoys, accompanied by traffic police crews. However, in the New Year itself, winter has weakened the frosty grip in the European part of the country.
Heavy snowfalls are the result of the collision of extremely temperature-varied air masses. The average temperature of last December in northwestern Russia turned out to be 3 degrees below normal, and in the southern part of the country an equally powerful center of a warm anomaly was formed. Temperature contrasts turned out to be twice as large as usual – this is observed only once every 14-15 years.
Now another Atlantic cyclone is breaking through the country. Over the next few days, its cloudy fields will cover the entire territory of the Russian Plain, so that the region will again expect snowfalls. The most intense precipitation these days will take place in the Volga region, in the west of Central Russia and the North Caucasus.
Such weather processes lead to warming. But we have to celebrate Christmas, and popular rumor, on the contrary, associates this holiday with frost. But all the same, such statements are still more a myth than a rule, at least for Central Russia.
Yes, on the night of January 7, almost 30 percent of the temperature becomes significantly below normal. However, this is not a predominant weather process; a warm anomaly is observed much more often. But this year, nature decided not to take into account the findings of statistics.
The fact is that the ridge of the anticyclone will break through to the Russian Plain. As a result, fields of dense frontal cloudiness, capable of moderating nighttime cooling, will persist only in the northeast of the region. And in the rest of the territory, the air will begin to cool down, local frosts can hit even in southern latitudes. And in the middle lane, real frosts are expected – on Christmas night -15 …- 20.
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