Blizzard #2 for Vladivostok

When I was getting ready to move to Vladivostok, everyone told me it doesn’t snow very much here.

Today we had our second blizzard in less than 3 weeks.

Although this time around the winds didn’t get up to 50 mph sustained for an entire day (although the wind was certainly quite respectable, especially the gusts), this storm brought us much more snow than Vlad’s Valentine’s Day blizzard, and by midday today we had about 2 feet (with more potentially to fall, or so they claim). This time around the city of Vladivostok appeared to be taking a few more measures (at least downtown) to try to clear the snow and prevent Vlad from again turning into a huge ice rink, but it doesn’t seem too likely that the roads or sidewalks will recover very soon.

They say Vladivostok has not had this much snow, or two storms quite like this so close together, in over 100 years.

Of course, everything in town is closed (you know it’s serious when Russia closes for snow!), but as I can’t sit at home for an entire day (and especially not for 2 entire days in less than 3 weeks), I took quite the hike in the storm this afternoon (2 hours may be a bit longer than recommended in this weather), and here are some pictures.

Happy spring!

Pictures (I think you can click to enlarge): 1. and 2. cars stuck near my apartment complex (birds-eye view), 3. a path is cleared on one sidewalk downtown, 4. this (former) staircase is quite snowed over, 5.kiosks near Far Eastern State University, 6. cars are still a-driving on Ocean Avenue (Okeansky Prospekt), one of the busiest roads in town, 7. this bus is stuck! in one of the largest intersections in downtown Vladivostok, 8. in this weather Vladivostok

drivers actually share the road with pedestrians, 9. buried car near my apartment