Tornado - first since 1954 - signals freak downpour, opening craters in roads which swallow up cars.
siberia tornado

The sudden storm caused flooding in Novosibirsk's metro stations, city centre streets and shops - while the water opened cracks in asphalt large enough for vehicles to fall into. A waterfall was spotted close to the central railway station, a major stopover on the Trans-Siberian Railway.

'New tourist attraction,' quipped one online joker.

A rare tornado seen over Burmaistrovo village - the first in Novosibirsk region in more than 60 years, but the third in Siberia in two weeks - preceded the flash flooding in and around the city with a 1.51 population, the third largest in Russia. No injuries were reported from this rare phenomenon.



The press secretary of Western Siberian Weather Centre Renad Yagudin said: 'We had a couple of really strong tornadoes in July 1954.

'One picked up a milkmaid and a tractor with a driver inside. Miraculously, the same tornado carefully 'put' them down so that they were not even hurt.'

In the storm that followed Monday's tornado, cars fell into suddenly-opening gaping crevices close to Sibirsky Mall in Koshurnikova Street and Zhilina Street in the central district of Novosibirsk, and holes also appeared on the outskirts of the city.

A key compounding factor were malfunctioning or non-existent storm drainage ducts. '16 mm of precipitation occurred in 36 minutes at Uchebnaya meteorological station,' said Renad Yagudin, press secretary of the West Siberian Hydrometeocentre. 'Obviously, this is a very strong rain'.

Several meteorological stations in Tomsk and Kemerovo regions reported the strongest rains in 30 years.

Experts disagree as to whether global warming is a cause of what many locals see as significant weather changes.

novosibirsk flooding
novosibirsk flooding
novosibirsk flooding
novosibirsk flooding
siberia flooding
siberia flooding
novosibirsk flooding