Thursday 20 December 2012

How cold is Siberia?

When I guide my tourists around Novosibirsk I always tell them about the climate here, and tourists always like listening about Siberian cold winters, but the matter is that the majority of tourists come in summer and it feels very comfortable to speak about the frost with +20-30 around. It is hard to believe that it can be the same, but with - sign, that is, -20, -30 C and colder.

But it's Siberia and such weather is typical here. No matter how much people keep speaking about the global warming, it seems that it does not concern Siberia at all, especially like now, when it is -26 and we are happy that it is that warm, because we had lower that -30 for the last 10 days or so.
I live almost in the city center and the coldest temperature we had here this December was -37, but those living close to the airport and in smaller villages in Novosibirsk region experienced up to -45. If you think that it's a sign of the golbal cooling and the new ice age, I would like to reassure you and tell you that it is neither abnormal, nor unusual.
Two years ago we had between -22 and -35 for nearly two months, and I remember the winter 2000-2001, when a big department store burnt down on Januray 2, 2001, with the fire brigade unable to stop the fire, because it was -43 and water got frozen before it could reach the flame.
When it's colder than -30, children up to the age of 10 are allowed to skip school, but adults have to go to work in any case. Life doesn't stop here and we feel perfect and fit, because we have to move very fast).
And some pictures for you to have an impression. these pictures are not mine, they have been made by a good friend of mine, a professional photographer.








And these are mine.





That's my kitchen window from inside. The bottle of champagne doesn't need to be kept in the fridge, there's a fridge everywhere in the kitchen.

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