Record snow in Russia’s far east blocks building entrances, buries cars
The biggest snowfall in 60 years on Russia’s Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula created vast drifts several metres tall that blocked building entrances and buried cars, according to Reuters visuals and weather monitoring stations.
In some areas more than 2 metres (6.5 feet) of snow has fallen in the first half of January after 3.7 metres in December, according to weather monitoring stations.
Heavy snow is not uncommon in Kamchatka – a peninsula which stretches down towards Japan.
Reuters pictures showed cars almost completely buried in metres of snow and four-wheel drives struggling for traction – or simply blocked by great drifts of snow. Locals were forced to dig out paths to the entrances of residential buildings.
“I plan to go on a walk around the city tomorrow, though unfortunately the car has been parked in a snowdrift for a month,” said Lydmila Moskvicheva, a photographer in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a port city 6,800km (4,200 miles) east of Moscow.