Summer finally hit Russia or Moscow to be more exact. It is a beautiful 30 degrees Centigrade (86F) during the day. This is a wonderful temperature and coupled with a lack of humidity, makes it unbelievably Spring Like…

People in Moscow laugh at Winter and it can hit the exact opposite temperature at -30 degrees Centigrade and they will still play chess, drink vodka and smoke cigarettes outside. So what is a little cold?

Russians will laugh at America when the going gets cold…

Now the Americans can laugh at Russia when the going gets hot…

Muscovite’s are just not use to the heat. The playgrounds are empty during the day, no one playing chess outside and you find out that Russians do own shorts and sleeveless shirts. Why they even have to mow the grass…

Just a week ago everyone had coats on and it looked like winter was going to make a attempt at a come back. Svet was bundled up in a coat and even I was wearing a long sleeve shirt!

It really is all in your perspective. Russia is so huge that it has very hot humid areas and very frozen cold areas. All at the same time year around. But Moscow has finally welcomed Summer and I hear talk of “When is Winter coming back?”

Not long, so enjoy while you can…

Windows to Russia!

I find it interesting how American press has just gone crazy on the snow in East Coast America. As I sit here in Russia and watch it snow again and again! I would say out of the last 60 days it has snowed 55 of those days. The multiples of feet of snow is packed down to about a foot and a half. It is like a solid sheet of ice now. All areas can virtually be transversed safely (pertains to not sinking out of sight) because the surface is like rock. The sidewalks are sometimes two feet higher than in the summer and stepping off the side walk can be a very dangerous proposition. The work crews have big metal rods with a strong steel blade on the end and they chop for hours trying to clear a path for people to walk. My favorite thing is when they chop a set of stairs from the road surface to the sidewalk. Sometimes it can be several stairs high…

I would imagine that the people who live in Michigan and the Dakotas plus other states in America really wonder what is wrong with some people at times! I have friends in the North part of America, that are use to having so much snow that their car disappears every year and they never complain about the snow. (Really it seems to me that the normal people are not really complaining, but that the Government and press are making a big deal out of it?)

The big difference is that in America the snow melts, except maybe the farthest North areas. In Moscow Russia the snow just keeps getting deeper. We have what seems to be about 6 months of Winter. The temperature just never goes about 0 degrees for months and months…

I never realized what snowpack was about because I do not ski, but now I know. Most snow that I have seen in the Midwest America was heavy and deep but within a week it was gone and ready for the next snow…

I said to Svetlana the other day, “Either I am getting taller or all these trees and road signs are getting much shorter!” As a tree limb was trying to poke me in the eye that in summer would have been at least two feet above my head.

Boza loves it because he can dig anywhere (He has a lot of terrier in him) and not get in trouble. He likes to dig as fast as he can into the packed snow, throwing ice everywhere. Then he sticks his head way down into the hole he dug and growls at what ever imaginary creature he is digging for. Then he runs and digs another hole. So far, he never hits dirt and when he does, I will know Spring is coming.

As I sit here writing this and the snow falls outside…

Windows to Russia!

comments always welcome.

In America people like to mumble under their breath about the weather forecast and how wrong it was for the day! It is a well known joke that you just listen to the forecast and believe the opposite of what they say…

In Russia, especially Moscow Russia. Some still think that the Weather Man can and will not be wrong!

Mayor Yury Luzhkov, known for his attempts to control both the rain and the snow, lambasted weather forecasters Tuesday for failing to predict this winter’s first big snowfall, which caused traffic jams that even stunned drivers used to Moscow’s notoriously crowded streets.

The mayor “is extremely dissatisfied with the work of the [city] meteorological office, which was unable to make an exact forecast even on a short-term basis,” Luzhkov’s spokesman Sergei Tsoi said, Interfax reported.

Only 14 to 15 centimeters (less than 6 inches) of snow fell in a 24 hour period, But the catcher is that the city meteorologist forecast 1 to 2 centimeters! So…

As city wide traffic disintegrated to a halt and the roads became a living nightmare – 2700 accidents collapsed the already fragile rush hour traffic situation causing spectacular collisions along the major roads and at that point the drivers abandon their cars near metro stations and bus terminals. The news reported that people even left cars standing on the eight-lane wide Garden Ring Road and the Mkad Road that is the last ring around the city. (Link to 894km of traffic jam)

They say that enterprising guys walked through the jammed up traffic, (with cans of gasoline) selling fuel at double to triple the price!

This all created a backlash into the Mayors office from people wanting to know why the roads were in such bad shape?

So Mayor Yury Luzhkov – Blamed the Weather Man!

Who else you gonna blame? The Mayor…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

PS: I hope the weather man survives! I hear on the news that they are talking about making the cities meteorologist pay financially for their errors…