Spring? What spring? Record snow falls in Siberia and Far East

Spring may be officially here, with flowers beginning to bud in many parts of the northern hemisphere. But spare a thought for the people of Siberia and the Russian Far East, who are having to cope with record snow fall.

Drifts have reached up to one metre-high in Tomsk, with a military tank even being used to pull trucks that have become stuck on the road.

Snowfall on March 1, the first official day of spring, hit a 100-year record in some places and now forecasters have warned more of the white stuff is on its way.

In Primorsky Krai, between March 3 and 4 it snowed constantly for 20 hours, leaving cars buried and almost covering the front doors to buildings.

The worst of the weather was in Vladivostok, Artem, Nakhodka, Ussuriisk, Partisansk and coastal areas. 

Roads were closed in Vladivostok but that did not deter winter sports enthusiasts who turned Shefner Street into an impromptu ski slope.

Businesses across the region closed early and universities were forced to send their students home, with many simply abandoning their cars and walking on foot.

It was a similar situation in Kamchatka, where schools were closed and residents were advised not to leave their homes.

On Thursday the airport at Yuzno-Sakhalinsk was badly affected by the weather, with more than a dozen flights delayed.

Last month the Emergency Ministry was forced to use a tank to move stranded lorries on the road between Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk-on-Amur, while Novosibirsk endured a month’s worth of precipitation in just three days. The city’s mayor Anatoly Lokot even admitted that funds allocated to clearing the snow had run out.