Locals in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk–the same city that was hit by a meteorite in 2013–took photos of the strange blue-colored snow that just fell.
“As the sun rose today, everyone noticed the blue rooftops, blue parking lots…we started panicking a bit,” local resident Dmitry told RT.com, which described the snow as “fallout.” The snow smelled a bit like iron, he said.
Being covered in snow is bad enough, but Russian city was spooked to be covered in blue snow. http://t.co/y2ep2yWKWW pic.twitter.com/4RxQHFqOYS
— Mark Mooney (@mxmooney) February 14, 2015
16:20: Russian city wakes to blue snow http://t.co/q9dzXjyXVz pic.twitter.com/GwaZZqHWGP
— Fastpages (@FastpagesUK) February 14, 2015
Mystery blue snow fallout in Chelyabinsk alarms residents http://t.co/sCGG92w838 pic.twitter.com/AnUXDgViKi
— TG (@TakisGenn) February 14, 2015
“This snow melts inside, so we have blue water in all the offices around here,” a woman told local news site Telefakt, per the New York Times. “We once had orange snow, but there hadn’t been blue before.”
But Russian officials said that the blue snow–as well as the orange snow that fell in Saratov–is nothing to worry about.
People in Russian city of Saratov wonder why the hell the snow is orange. http://t.co/dcYj53Ka0n pic.twitter.com/1tKGqNMBGS
— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) February 3, 2015
“The air mass has come to us from North Africa,” Boltukhin was quoted as saying. “Ordinary sand gives such an unusual color.”
“There is absolutely nothing to be afraid of,” he added. “These weren’t rocks falling down.”