© Elina Kadochnikova
Such temperatures happen in eastern Siberia, but in the west they are more rare.
Such temperatures happen in eastern Siberia, but in the west they are more rare.
This is not a week when there was any evidence of global warming in western Siberia, with thermometers plunging to the minus 40s and minus 62 Celsius. Meteorologists say it may get colder still.
At Bolshoe Olkhovskoe oilfield there was a new record for the Khanti-Mansi region with a bone-crushing temperature of minus 62C. The village of Kazym in the same district of Beloyarsky hit minus 58C.
Eyelashes got frosty extensions from nature's own cosmetics, as our amazing pictures show. Beards turned prematurely white.
A video was posted entitled: 'Surgut men are so hardy they only ride on a swing and eat ice cream at minus 51C.'
In Nadym, it nudged minus 50C, and all schools were closed. In Tyumen, school classes were cancelled from grades 1 to 9, with minus 36C the trigger for children to stay home, although elsewhere in Siberia - for example Yakutia in recent weeks - students are still expected in school at below minus 52C.
Nizhnevartovsk hit minus 50C, the coldest winter in ten years in the city. School classes were cancelled today - and for the rest of the week.
Such temperatures happen in eastern Siberia, but in the west they are more rare.
Comment: This is actually the second time it has happened there this year. (No, it doesn't normally happen there.)