PHOTO/VIDEO Moscow, with the heaviest snowfall in the last two centuries. How meteorologists explain the intensity
Red Square in Moscow, Thursday, January 29, 2026. Credit: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP/Profimedia
The capital of Russia recorded this month the biggest snowfall in the last more than 200 years, according to the statements made on Thursday by the meteorologists of the Moscow State University, reports AFP.
“January was an unusually cold and snowy month in Moscow,” the university said on social media.
On January 29, snow corresponding to 92 mm of precipitation was recorded in Moscow, “the highest value in the last 203 years”, the educational institution also specified, quoted by Agerpres.
🚌 Transport Chaos in Moscow Enters Second Day Due to Heavy Snowfall
Moscow is facing a second day of transport paralysis caused by heavy precipitation. Surface public transport is failing to cope: lines for buses start right inside metro lobbies — which people still have to… pic.twitter.com/RdFBEluZof
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) January 29, 2026
According to the university, the temperature is also 1.5 degrees Celsius lower than the seasonal average, which for January is -6.2 degrees Celsius.
Russia's capital #Moscow has this month seen the largest #snowfall in more than 200 years, Moscow State University meteorologists said on Thursday. pic.twitter.com/bfsaPdXsNM
— Farhan Khan (@TheFarhanAKhan) January 29, 2026
The institution explained that this “abnormally large” amount of fallen snow is the result of “the passage over the Moscow region of deep and extensive cyclones with an intensified atmospheric front”.
Moscow region, Russia ❗
🥶❄️🙂 The snow saga continues! Some more footage from the Moscow region. The snowfalls in Moscow on January 27-28 were among the three strongest, – local media. In Vidnoe for example, local residents push a truck. pic.twitter.com/mYF1y9VUjv— LX (@LXSummer1) January 29, 2026
Such intensity has not been seen since 1823, when the precipitation level was 122 mm, the representatives of the educational institution also said, noting, however, that “observations made in such a distant past may not be entirely reliable”.
On Thursday, the snow layer measured as much as 60 centimeters in some areas of the Russian capital.
Moscow's record snowfall has traffic in chaos. With locals joking it's time to go back to the 19th century's preferred mode of transport: horses. pic.twitter.com/Klb3g55x9A
— Brian McDonald (@27khv) January 29, 2026
“There was a lot more (snow) when I was a child, but now we practically don't have any snow at all, before there was a lot more,” Pavel, a 35-year-old bartender and resident of Moscow, told AFP.
This month, Kamceatka in Russia's far east declared a state of emergency due to a massive snowstorm that partially paralyzed the region's main giant.
