E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSThe temperature in Siberia is reaching lows not felt in more than half a century as the mercury dips to 42 degrees below zero and the air instantly freezes boiling water. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
Americans feeling their first wintry blast of the season on Wednesday could take some comfort from this: In Moscow it felt like 10 below – part of a week-long cold spell across Russia that has parts of Siberia feeling like 50 below.
Across Russia, the deep freeze killed at least 45 people over the last week, 21 on Tuesday alone, the English-language Moscow Times reported Wednesday. Nearly 270 people were hospitalized, more than half with frostbite.
Russia's emergency ministry urged everyone in Moscow to stay indoors on Wednesday, while forecasters said the cold could get worse over the weekend.
Siberia has been hardest hit, with cities like Novosibirsk dipping to minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday. With the wind chill, it felt like minus 47.
The temperatures have been abnormally low for Russia at this time of year.
Related: US snowstorm threatens travel
Last week, the cold in Siberia nearly killed two circus elephants after their trailer caught fire, the RIA news agency reported.
A handler quickly devised a plan, buying two cases of vodka from a nearby village and serving it to the elephants -- albeit diluted with warm water.
"After that they roared as if they were in the jungle. Apparently they were happy," the unnamed handler was quoted as saying.
Valery Titievsky / AFP - Getty Images
A woman walking in Novosibirsk, a city in Russia's Siberia, reflects the cold there on Wednesday. Temperatures dipped to minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit -- and the wind chill made it feel like minus 47.
Neighboring Ukraine has also felt the freeze -- 37 people have died there so far this month because of subzero temperatures, the government said Tuesday.
The cold followed storms that left some areas with nearly two feet of snow.
Reuters contributed to this report.
More world stories from NBC News:
- Sending 'sympathy and love': Newtown's agony echoes in Scottish town
- Richard Engel, NBC News team freed from captors in Syria
- 'We must restore the bond': Japan's new PM vows closer ties with US
- Gift fit for a queen? UK monarch gets 60 place mats
- Conn. massacre: Lessons from Israel, where guns are a way of life
- 'I can only rely on myself': Insurance is expensive, unfamiliar in China
- No more 'bunga bunga'? Italy's Berlusconi, 76, unveils girlfriend, 27
Leave a Comment:
Russian Windchill : -50
Republican IQ : -60
Democrat criminal quotient: 100%
Greg_S math skill : 0
Uhh. Not a big poster here... but this story kind of made me sick to my stomach the way it was written. Take some comfort from this: 45 people dead? Disgusting.
First read Francis and Vavrus' latest paper then take a look at the current jet stream loop over Russia.
No offence but this is Russia were talking about. I thought of all the people in the in the world they would be USED to cold.
"It feels like" this and "It feels like" that, how about actually having the degrees there? Come on NBC.
&"Nearly two feet of snow," etc.
Wild animals are not entertainment.
Must be the result of that global warming proffered by that con artist vice president.
Never met a Democrat politician that wasn't a crook... not that Republicans can be believed.
Moral: Get rid of them all.
And this is why FUR is Still the Best Coat in the World.....When it gets really cold, FUR is the Only way to go...Just Ask any critter that Survives winters in Siberia :)
I blame this on global warming.
Where I am now it's 80.. Hahaha.
Winter is coming... be sure to stock up on vodka. (typed with Russian accent:)
But I cannot legally drink my friend! :)
Remember 2011 when the Moscow heat wave in the summer was proof of global warming?
But the coldest temperatures since 1938 is just wintry weather.
That woman in the 2nd photo on the right has NO gloves on! Yikes!!!
If they could afford some oil, they could have some good old fashioned global warming going on. Problem solved.
Global Warming!! Wait, What? Oh and the ice sheet that is melting is reforming on the other end of the globe as it always does? Global Warming!!
it is not unusual to be -60 in the Alaskan interior.....doesn't leave a lot for chance, but you learn to deal with those temperatures and it doesn't keep you from going outside and enjoying life.....You acclimate to where you live....and from what I understand from Siberians that come here (Alaska)...they have a dry cold like we do in most parts of that area of Russia....
It would've been a better story if the writer had the actual temperature and not just a "feeling".
Any chance of sending Al Gore to Siberia?
i wonder if the russians are green?