Town of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky gets 1.8 metres of snow in places, burying cars and cutting off roads and buildings
A record-breaking snowfall event unfolded in far eastern Russia last week when the town of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, located on the Kamchatka peninsula’s east coast, received more than 1.8 metres (6 feet) of lying snow in places.
Strong winds accompanying the snowfall caused extreme drifting of more than 3 metres against buildings and cars. Two key ingredients combined to cause such an extreme snowfall event. Strong Pacific low pressures dragged moist air from the tropics northwards, which clashed with cold Arctic air already over the region.
Conveyor belts of tropical air are called atmospheric rivers and often bring heavy rainfall to places such as California. Atmospheric river snowfall events tend to be rarer and, for the Kamchatka peninsula, particularly impactful.
Heavy snow started falling in the early hours of Monday 12 January, and with snowfall rates of 2-5cm an hour at times, it continued until Tuesday evening, bringing 60-90cm of snow. As one system passed through, another approached, and the snow began again on Wednesday afternoon, not easing until Friday morning and bringing an additional 60-90cm widely across the region.
