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An extraordinary winter storm has transformed Russia’s Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, delivering the heaviest snowfall the region has seen in roughly six decades. Weather stations report that parts of the peninsula accumulated more than two metres of snow in the first half of January alone, following about 3.7 metres in December, totals that have reshaped daily life across the area.
In the regional capital Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, towering snowbanks several metres high have sealed off building entrances and swallowed parked vehicles. Footage and images distributed by Reuters show cars nearly invisible beneath drifts and off-road vehicles unable to push through packed snow. Residents have resorted to shovelling narrow corridors just to reach apartment doors, while roads are hemmed in by walls of snow that rise to the height of traffic lights.
The biggest snowfall in 60 years on Russia's Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula created vast drifts several meters tall that blocked building entrances and buried cars, according to Reuters visuals and weather monitoring stations https://t.co/CUtSDGLsdE pic.twitter.com/nyGUrtz3qT
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 19, 2026
Despite the disruption, the extreme conditions have also sparked moments of levity. Videos circulating in Russian media show pedestrians climbing and traversing the drifts, with some turning the massive snow piles into impromptu playgrounds. Local photographer Lydmila Moskvicheva summed up the mixed mood, noting that while she hopes to explore the city on foot, her car has remained immobilized in a snowbank for weeks, a small example of how the record snowfall has blended inconvenience with winter spectacle.
