MOSCOW, Dec 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Over 70 flights have been delayed or cancelled in Moscow airports due to heavy snowfall.
According to online airport displays, 73 flights have been delayed or canceled for arrival and departure at Moscow airports.
As of 02:18 a.m. Sunday Moscow time, 34 flights were delayed at Sheremetyevo airport, 17 flights were delayed and three canceled in Domodedovo, 13 flights were delayed in Vnukovo and six flights were delayed in Zhukovsky.
According to Russian Weather Service head Roman Vilfand, on Sunday, Moscow saw the heaviest snowfall for Dec 3 in the 145 years of observation
Meanwhile, temperatures in parts of Siberia plummeted to minus 50 degrees Celsius while blizzards blanketed Moscow in record snowfall and disrupted flights as winter weather swept across Russia.
In the Sakha Republic, located in the northeastern part of Siberia and home to Yakutsk, one of the world’s coldest cities, temperatures fell below minus 50 degrees Celsius, according to the region’s weather stations.
An abnormally early cold snap in Sakha pushed temperatures to even lower than minus 50 degrees Celsius in several areas of Sakha, a vast region just a little smaller than India.
Almost all of Sakha is located in the permafrost zone. In the region’s capital, Yakutsk, which lies some 5,000km east of Moscow, the temperature was around minus 44 degrees Celsius to minus 48 degrees Celsius.
Temperatures of minus 50 degrees Celsius have become less common in recent years because of climate change, with permafrost showing increasing signs of thawing.
In the Russian capital, some of the biggest snowfalls ever seen caused delays at some airports on Monday, with runways covered in thick snow.
At least 54 flights were delayed and five more were cancelled at the capital’s three largest airports, the RIA news agency reported.
Temperatures in Moscow were forecast to fall to about minus 18 degrees Celsius later this week. — NNN-AGENCIES
