The third snowfall of this winter, which lasted for two days in Moscow, was the heaviest before the New Year in the last 20 years. "The New Year has not been so snowy for a long time, the last time was in 1988, when more than 20 centimeters of snow fell. On December 29-30, 2009, 18-25 centimeters of snow fell in Moscow," Alexey Lyakhov, head of the Hydrometeorological Bureau of Moscow and the Moscow Region, told journalists on Wednesday.

Snow for the New Year

According to the city services complex, municipal workers removed tens of thousands of cubic meters of snow from the city streets in 24 hours, which was cleared by 15,000 units of equipment. According to Mosvodokanal, 102,038 thousand cubic meters of snow were delivered to stationary snow melting points in 24 hours, which were delivered by more than 6,800 vehicles, and from 6:00 to 14:00 on Wednesday - another 33,193 thousand cubic meters for 2,275 thousand vehicles.

"New Year's hasn't been this snowy for a long time, the last time was in 1988, when more than 20 centimeters of snow fell. On December 29-30, 2009, 18-25 centimeters of snow fell in Moscow," Alexey Lyakhov, head of the Hydrometeorological Bureau of Moscow and the Moscow Region, told journalists on Wednesday.

In turn, the director of the Hydrometeorological Center of Russia Roman Vilfand noted that "moderately frosty weather and crunchy snow underfoot create the prerequisites for walks" for Muscovites and residents of the Moscow region during the New Year holidays. According to his forecast, on December 31, the air temperature in Moscow and the region will drop to 10 degrees, and on New Year's Eve it will be 12-14 degrees below zero, in the region - up to 15. Snow is expected only in places. On January 1, it will freeze to 10-15 degrees, in the region - up to 16, during the day of January 2 and 3, 8-13 degrees below zero is expected.

Traffic jams on the ground and underground congestion

The snowfall that fell on Tuesday and Wednesday, like the previous ones, worsened the already difficult transport situation in the capital in the days leading up to the New Year: despite the timely forecast of weather forecasters and the efforts of utility workers, traffic during rush hour was practically paralyzed, and many motorists remembered the existence of the metro, which received an additional load.

Snow drifts formed on the roads, which significantly lengthened the braking distance of cars, visibility worsened due to the snowstorm, and as a result, the number of minor accidents increased. On Tuesday evening, according to the observations of a RIA Novosti correspondent, the journey along the Moscow Ring Road from Leninsky Prospekt to Varshavskoye Shosse took 3.5 hours. Thus, the average speed was slightly more than three kilometers per hour, which is less than the speed of a pedestrian. Traffic jams formed at the entrances to metro stations.

Among other things, the snowfall was accompanied by a strong wind with gusts of up to 15 meters per second, so there was no snow at all in open areas, and in some places the snowdrifts reached half a meter. A serious problem for pedestrians was the ice that formed during the cold snap after the rainy weather, and then the ice also covered the snow. As a result, more than a thousand people called the emergency services, and the real number of injuries is much higher, more than 500 people officially complained about the work of the city's public utilities, a source in the Moscow Ambulance Service told RIA Novosti. "The number of injuries was colossal, the teams could not cope with the calls, people had to wait for an ambulance for several hours," she said. At the same time, city authorities note that the capital's roads were treated with reagents.

The bad weather also affected aviation - due to the snowfall, two passenger planes diverted to a reserve airfield in Nizhny Novgorod. Moscow Railways also deployed almost all of its special equipment and more than 2,700 people to combat the snowfall so that electric trains could operate in working mode. According to Moscow Railways, on the night of December 29-30, 54 snow removal machines, 14 pneumatic blowers and nine snow-clearing machines were deployed, removing 67,000 cubic meters of snow.

Frosty and snowy weather awaits Muscovites on New Year's Eve