Snow and sun – oh what fun!

I really cannot remember a winter in Moscow like this one. A Moscow winter as it should be – frosty, icy, snowy, chilly, splendid, and sometimes even sunny. More often than not it’s a soggy, slushy, sullied affair, but I’m normally on the other side of the planet so it doesn’t really affect me so I’ve nothing to complain about.

Not that I never see snow of a winter. I’ve seen not small quantities of it twice in Antarctica (in 2009/2010 and 2017), in Greenland, and in Sweden-Denmark in February 2011 (oh such a long time ago that was). I’ve been to the typically, famously, thoroughly chilly Iceland and Yakutia, but only in summer, so those don’t count. Ah yes, I’ve skied in the Alps a few times, but I won’t count those either. So, that makes just four times in the last 10 (or even 15) years when I saw serious snow. Therefore, a rare total white-out in Moscow is only to be welcomed! Here are the views out of my office window and from the balcony next to it:

Nevertheless, I do have to mentally prepare for an upcoming snowy event. Ok, so it’s nothing like the prep that, say, the Euro-Arabian North Pole Expedition (that we proudly sponsor) has to make, as all I’ll be doing is seeing the snow up on the peaks of my next volcanoes, but it still needs doing, I guess.

Hmm, looking out there at the virgin snow every morning… it makes me want to leave the office and get some cross-country skiing in. But no, there’s work to do! And anyway, I don’t have any skis. Must procure some. What sort of an excuse is ‘no skis’?

If I recall correctly, in the seventies and eighties, the mercury would show lower than -20°C for a couple weeks most winters in Moscow, and that was considered quite normal. Sometimes it went lower than -30°C, while in the Moscow Region: -40°C. Indeed, the climate round these parts has certainly warmed over the last 40-or-so years. I wonder if it will carry on like that – maybe soon the only skis you’ll need of a winter are the sort you use for water-skiing?

Or maybe it will be just the opposite: after a short climatic paradise, things will again slowly turn into the next ice age. Who can tell?

Oh, I appear to have rambled a touch. Apologies. The plan was to just show you a few pretty pictures :).

PS: Oops, nearly forgot: just last New Year it was a cold and sunny one too!