Even the Poor Animals Are Suffering - Freezing Low Temps in Russian Far East Bring Little Ice Age
Abnormal cold is testing several Russian regions. School is canceled in a number of Siberian and Far Eastern cities because of frosts. In Norilsk, the weather almost prevented the airport from working. Not only people but also wild animals are trying to get used to extreme temperatures.
Nikolai Sokolov is reporting on those who succeed in it.
Strong wind and high humidity make you feel like it's -50. School has been canceled because of hard frost, the local airport is working according to the actual temperature. Those who arrived spend hours trying to reach the city as there are no taxis. If any, the fee equals the price for a ticket to Moscow.
An air traveller: "We've been waiting for an hour, but there is no option we can leave. There will be one bus for a lot of people. What will it be?"
Norilsk ambulance is working under no timeline. Chilblains, flare-ups of chronic conditions, sometimes even cars can't endure the temperatures of -45.
It's cold in the regional center too. Some bits of regional roads are closed. In Krasnoyarsk, people are literally knocked down by the wind.
Meanwhile, Kaliningrad has seen the first snow this year. A cold snap turned thousands of nettle fish, which didn't have time to swim away deeper, into ice, leaving them on the Baltic shore.
"It's my fish! It's mine! It's my hole in the ice and my fish!"
Only the strongest and the pushiest survive such frosts. Norilsk is invaded by ice foxes. Animals feel short of food, which makes them contact people. This ice fox is obstinately trying to get the capelin, which the fisherman keeps in an ice hole. At the same time, the animal, obviously, fears him. But keeps trying. Finally, the fisherman's heart faltered, and he shared his take.
"OK, take it. Well done. You can think you've dug it".
The hazardous situation remains in several regions at once. The temperature will remain that low for a long time. Expectedly, some territories of the Krasnoyarsk Region will see it drop to -57 within 24 hours. School is canceled, of course, and drivers should keep away from the high road.
Nikolai Sokolov, Sergey Soldatov, and Andrey Greshnev for Vesti from Norilsk