YakutskRussia’s Yakutsk region recorded -50 degrees this week as the Siberian city suffers an unusually brutal winter. Residents of the city, which lies 5,000 kilometers east of Moscow on the permafrost of Russia’s Far East, have endured a severe winter with temperatures often dropping below -40 degrees Celsius. However, the city broke all records this week when the temperature dropped below -50 degrees. Residents of the mining town 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) east of Moscow on the permafrost of Russia’s Far East regularly see the thermometer drop below minus 40.
“You can’t fight it. You either adjust and dress accordingly or you suffer,” said Anastasia Gruzdeva, carrying two scarves, two pairs of gloves and several hats and hoods. Or maybe it’s just the brain prepares you for it, and tells you everything is normal,” she added. Another resident, Nargusun Starostina, who sells frozen fish at a market without the use of a fridge or freezer Sells, said there was no specific cold-weather strategy. “Just dress warmly,” he said. “In layers, like cabbage!” he added.
With no end to the long winter, citizens are concerned about the city’s energy infrastructure. “Pipes are bursting, heating tanks are bursting, everything is frozen solid. Local authorities were not prepared for this situation at all,” one resident told the Metro newspaper. Another resident said their gas boiler was frozen solid. It was frozen over, a crippling condition where winter lasts from October to April.
“Batteries exploded in several residents’ apartments, and sewer pipes froze,” he said. Meanwhile, Vladimir Fedorov, former deputy mayor of Yakutsk, labeled the temperatures a “man-made disaster”.