Blizzard covers Moscow

The blizzard that weather forecasters had promised came to Moscow and the Central Federal District today. An amber storm warning was declared on that territory, the penultimate level of danger of weather. Difficult weather conditions are associated with strong winds and a heavy snowfall, which is caused by Atlantic cyclones that came from the West, which originated in Central Europe yesterday and was named 'Daniella'.

The blizzard has seriously affected the work of the capital's airports. In Moscow, due to difficult weather conditions, more than 80 flights have been delayed or cancelled, the bulletin board of the 'Yandex' service reports. Sheremetyevo Airport suffered the most, where 10 flights were delayed and 62 were cancelled. Vnukovo cancelled 8, Domodedovo cancelled 11 flights. Difficulties have affected mainly flights to the west: to Belarus or European countries, Interfax reports.

Snowdrifts are rapidly growing in the streets of the capital: their height by tomorrow morning may almost triple. According to the capital's Weather Bureau, if this morning the snow depth in Moscow was approximately 11 cm, now snowdrifts have already risen by about 15 cm. "By the morning, they will add another 10-15 cm," TASS quoted a source in the Meteorological Service.

According to Moscow City Hall, on the streets of Moscow there are now up to 15 thousand units of specialized equipment. About 7000 dump trucks are constantly removing snow to special points – mobile and stationary, the number of which is nearly 200, and the capacity is 550 thousand cubic meters of snow per day. More than 1.2 million cubic meters of snow have already been disposed of in the city.

Traffic on the highways of the capital encountered difficulties, but no more so than usual: the maximum traffic congestion of Moscow in the evening was 8 points, that is, 3 points higher than the day before, but no higher than the normal level.

Drivers in the capital were asked beforehand not to travel by private car, but to use public transport, which is working in an intensive regime: about 7000 buses, trolley buses and trams are moving on the streets of Moscow.

The head of the Russian Hydrometeorological Center, Roman Vilfand, warned that the snow in Moscow will continue until tomorrow morning. The peak of the snowfall will come at night. Freezing rain is possible in some regions of the Central Federal District.