Winter Recap

As the winter comes to a close here in Russia I thought I would share a bit on just what a Russian winter is considering most of you have never seen one.

So I heard from somewhere that this particular winter was one of the worst in recent history. A fact I am inclined to believe after that one week in January with the 30 below temperatures. Ya, that was cold. Ok so in general we got our first snow in Vladimir around November, as I recall I think it had snowed in Maryland, back in the good old US, before I saw snow here. Snow was sparse until mid December. What I mean by sparse is that it would snow and then melt before it snowed again. By the time I left the temperature was hovering around -10 C, I think, I don’t actually recall it being extremely cold in December. Of course I then returned home and was a bit surprised when I got back to Russia.

When I left we had had a lot of snow, enough that it had stopped melting. Now, mid January, there was at least 3 feet piled up around every road and sidewalk, plus a good bit on the roads and sidewalks as well. The temperature, as I said was about -30 C. Going outside, you first notice this temperature by the freezing of your nose. The first breath you take just kind of ices everything. If your dressed properly, you can be outside for a bit with out to much discomfort, but anything long, like a half hour and your legs really start to freeze. Anyways, it didn’t snow too much in January, but the temperature remained about -20 C. February brought a lot of snow, it snow almost constantly, and this snow never melted, it was just too cold to do so. March brought warmer temperatures, around -10 to 0 C. I can’t tell you how nice 0 degrees was after that winter. I mean you walk outside and you really feel the difference, you feel it’s actually warm outside, which is weird when you think about how cold it still is, but no one cared. By April things were starting to melt and by now, April 12th, the snow is almost gone, the temperature is usually around 10 C and we get sun at least 50% of the time, as opposed to 0% in February.

So the snow last from mid November to about April, it does get very cold, but only for about a month and a half. Although by mid April, I really can’t wait for summer. Winter is pretty much over, but it certainly managed to kill almost every plant around here and there is dirt everywhere, it reminds me of disaster clean up. Yet, this happens every year, amazing ( I will also say that the winter is exponential worse the further from Moscow you get, My host family said something about 5 feet of snow around the dacha, village home).