Record snow fall in Russian far east sows fun, frustration and massive drifts

The biggest snow fall in 60 years on Russia’s Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula created vast drifts several metres tall that blocked building entrances and buried cars, according to Reuters visuals and weather monitoring stations.

In some areas more than 2 m (6.5 feet) of snow has fallen in the first half of January after 3.7 m in December, according to weather monitoring stations.

Reuters pictures showed cars almost completely buried in metres of snow and four-wheel drives struggling for traction – or simply blocked by great drifts of snow. Locals were forced to dig out paths to the entrances of apartment buildings.

“I plan to go on a walk around the city tomorrow, though unfortunately the car has been parked in a snowdrift for a month,” said Lydmila Moskvicheva, a photographer in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a port city 6,800 km (4,200 miles) east of Moscow.

Video posted on Russian media showed locals walking on snow drifts alongside traffic lights and great piles of snow several metres tall lining roads.

Some jumped down the drifts for fun.