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Snow covers the lower floors of an apartment block after an extreme snowstorm hit the far eastern city of Petropavlovsk Kamchatskiy, Russia, on Jan. 15, 2026. Lydmila Moskvicheva/Reuters
Russia’s Far East was buried under the heaviest snowfall in 60 years on Jan. 20 as a powerful winter system swept across parts of Asia.
A state of emergency has been in effect in the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky urban district since Jan. 16, the city administration said on Jan. 20.
Kamchatka’s weather conditions in December and the first half of January are extreme and unprecedented for about 60 years, Vera Polyakova, head of Kamchatka’s hydrometeorology service, said on Jan. 20, according to Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti.
Photographs of buried cars and blocked entrances, taken by residents in the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky area, were shared on a local government website as snow continued to fall throughout the week.
City officials said in a Jan. 21 update that snow-clearing equipment was deployed on major roads and residential streets, with work continuing overnight to remove snow from urban areas.
Meteorologists said the extreme conditions were driven by a powerful Pacific storm system interacting with regional atmospheric patterns.
AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls said on Jan. 20 that the snow on Kamchatka was the direct result of a powerful storm lifting into the Sea of Okhotsk.
The cold snap disrupted transport across the region and beyond, closing roads in China, stranding air travelers in Japan, and leaving parts of Russia’s Far East paralysed.
Colder Air Spreads West
While the Far East grappled with heavy snow, colder air was forecast to intensify across much of Russia in the coming days.
Alexander Shuvalov, head of the Meteo weather forecasting center, said on Jan. 18 that temperature anomalies showed a sharp strengthening of frost beginning after Jan. 22.
A woman plays with snow in front of St. Basil's Cathedral on Moscow's snow-covered Red Square on Jan. 9, 2026. Tatyana Makeyeva/AFP via Getty Images
“As follows from these forecast maps, the period from January 19 to 21 will see a noticeable weakening of frosts, but starting January 22, the frosts will increase day by day,” Shuvalov said in a Jan. 18 post on his Telegram channel.
He said the temperature drop would be significant. In cities such as Yaroslavl and Kostroma, temperatures were forecast to fall by nearly 20 degrees Celsius within days, approaching minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the week.
Shuvalov said the cold spell was expected to peak around Jan. 25, when temperatures in Moscow, Vladimir, and Ryazan could fall to between minus 30 and minus 33 degrees Celsius (minus 22 and minus 27.4 degrees Fahrenheit).
Even western cities such as Kaliningrad were forecast to see temperatures as low as minus 15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Fahrenheit).
“In general, January 2026 is absolutely the opposite of last January,” Shuvalov said. “That one set heat records. This one claims to be among the three coldest January months of the 21st century.”
The same system swept south into China, where a wave of low temperatures brought rare snowfall to the financial hub of Shanghai.
In Japan, strong winds and heavy snowfall disrupted travel along its northwestern coast, grounding dozens of flights and hitting popular ski regions at the height of winter.
Evgenia Filimianova is a UK-based journalist covering a wide range of international stories, with a particular interest in foreign policy, economy, and UK politics.
