[Regnum] Snow will cover 92% of Russia by the middle of next week. Roman Vilfand, head of the Russian Hydrometeorological Center, announced this on December 7.
Vilfand clarified that this will happen thanks to the Volga Federal District, where nighttime temperatures are expected to range from -4 to -9 degrees Celsius, and daytime temperatures from -2 to -7 degrees Celsius. At these temperatures, the snowfall will persist.
"Due to this, the area of ​​the country covered by snow will increase slightly, by about 2% by the middle of next week compared to the current 90%," TASS quoted the meteorologist as saying.
Vilfand emphasized that snow lies in a dense layer on the Asian part of Russia. At daytime temperatures around freezing, it melts, but only its depth, not its total area, is decreasing.
Earlier, the head of the Russian Hydrometeorological Center reported that increased thaws are forecast for the coming winter season, but periods with temperatures dropping to -20 degrees Celsius and below are also expected. He stated that the probability of this scenario is 65-68%.
At the end of November, Evgeny Tishkovets, a leading specialist at the Phobos weather center, reported that the air temperature in Moscow in November was 4.3 degrees above the climatic norm, making it the second warmest in the history of meteorological observations, surpassed only by the same month in 2013. According to his forecasts, the usual winter will not begin in Central Russia until the second half of December.