Kazan at epicentre of heaviest snowfall in winter

“The greatest challenge for public utilities is today”

Kazan has been hit by snowfall again — it has become the heaviest for the entire winter, Associate Professor of the Department of Meteorology, Climatology and Atmospheric Ecology of the Kazan Federal University, Timur Aukhadeev, told Realnoe Vremya. The height of the snow cover on the meteorological sites in Kazan was 66 centimetres, which is much higher than normal.

From February 1 and as of 6 am on February 10, 34 millimetres of precipitation already fell in the capital of Tatarstan.

“This is a lot, since the monthly norm is 37 millimetres. This has been the heaviest snowfall this winter. This is the greatest challenge for public utilities," said Aukhadeev. Before that, intense snowfalls were on January 1 and 23 — then 8 millimeters of precipitation fell per day.

“We are luckier than Moscow, because we constantly find ourselves on the periphery of cyclones," the forecaster noted.

“It has been not the last precipitation obviously”

“We have such a pronounced western process with the departure of this cyclone, and we will find ourselves again on the periphery of the anticyclone," continues Aukhadeev. “But at the same time, the Atlantic is preparing a new cyclone for us, which is about to begin to shift to our Eurasian continent.

In this regard, there will be snowfalls in the future.

“It has been not the last precipitation obviously. It is still difficult to say on what days exactly it will be," the expert said.

“Such a snowfall has not been remembered in these places for a long time”

Snowfalls this year are especially strong, utilities are clearly not coping with them: ambulances and fire services are getting stuck in snowdrifts, and some residents, without waiting for cleaning, pick up shovels themselves.

“The local places don't remember such a snowfall for a long time," Mayor Ilsur Metshin commented on the snow blockages on the roads and in the courtyards of Kazan.

There are not enough of these utilities — there is a shortage of road workers, drivers and machine operators in Kazan. Some of them, for example, have been “taken away” to work on the federal highway M12. At the disposal of Kazan, only 40% of the cadre of drivers remained, many also went on sick leave due to the new wave of coronavirus.

“The main issue today is connected with courtyards, with exits from courtyards, with village roads. The request to the management companies: use the weather as much as possible while the sun and a respite in the snow. Not only to 'shake off' the snow on the roadsides, but also to take it out. Here is the question to different owners. People, when they go from their house to bus stops, for them all this is an 'untidy city', but in fact, the owners of roads are different!” the mayor declared.

Having signed his impotence in front of the elements, Ilsur Metshin asked homeowners associations, construction cooperatives and the Kazan residents themselves in general to take the situation into their own hands and move “from the keys on the Internet with calls to clean up the snow” to the case in order to share responsibility. “There will be a lot more snow!” he warned.