Last night, when I started writing about the coming cold the temperature was no more than a few degrees below zero. By the time I left the office to start up Balios it was -18 C. Coming home with my mavourneen at around 11 pm, we stopped for some produce at the local grocer. When we got out into the streets again just after a few minutes the temperature had dropped at -26 C. That has to be the most precipitous temperature drop I've ever witnessed in me life in such a short time!
I woke up this morning to more news reports about The Big Freeze. In the Moscow Times, the country's top health official, Gennady Onishchenko, said Monday that schools in Moscow may have to be closed if temperatures were at -25 C or colder for any length of time. (A Russian colleague once said schools would automatically be closed at -30 C.)
Moscow's homeless people were among the most vulnerable, with some even attempting to get themselves arrested by the police as a desperate means to survive the cold. "Spending a night in the police station is better than anything else, at least it's warm down there," The Times quoted an unidentified homeless man as saying. That's one for News of the World.
Or for the birds, as this photo of migrating penguins sent to me by my friend Vika suggests.
"Honestly, we do not have any experience of working at such low temperatures . It hasn't been so cold for years," said Rita Likhachyova, chief doctor at City Clinic No. 7, which operates a separate clinic for the homeless. "Hopefully, the cold spell will not last and the homeless will find shelter. However, we still expect a lot of patients with hypothermia."
Too late for at least five people, who froze to death in the city over the weekend.
Another interesting tidbit for Rupert Murdoch is that police will be allowed to wear valenki. That's almost like seeing bears in Russia's streets.
Postscript: I looked up Tomsk on the Internet and found out it's more than plausible that it exists. At least there's an account by someone who's actually been there. American engineer David MacDonald has written an article about living in Siberia in Clever Magazine.
I woke up this morning to more news reports about The Big Freeze. In the Moscow Times, the country's top health official, Gennady Onishchenko, said Monday that schools in Moscow may have to be closed if temperatures were at -25 C or colder for any length of time. (A Russian colleague once said schools would automatically be closed at -30 C.)
Moscow's homeless people were among the most vulnerable, with some even attempting to get themselves arrested by the police as a desperate means to survive the cold. "Spending a night in the police station is better than anything else, at least it's warm down there," The Times quoted an unidentified homeless man as saying. That's one for News of the World.
Or for the birds, as this photo of migrating penguins sent to me by my friend Vika suggests.
"Honestly, we do not have any experience of working at such low temperatures . It hasn't been so cold for years," said Rita Likhachyova, chief doctor at City Clinic No. 7, which operates a separate clinic for the homeless. "Hopefully, the cold spell will not last and the homeless will find shelter. However, we still expect a lot of patients with hypothermia."Too late for at least five people, who froze to death in the city over the weekend.
Another interesting tidbit for Rupert Murdoch is that police will be allowed to wear valenki. That's almost like seeing bears in Russia's streets.
Postscript: I looked up Tomsk on the Internet and found out it's more than plausible that it exists. At least there's an account by someone who's actually been there. American engineer David MacDonald has written an article about living in Siberia in Clever Magazine.
