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In Balmy Europe, Feverish Choruses of 'Let It Snow'
A hiker in the Alps near Stels, Switzerland, passes a small lake, uncharacteristically without ice, while the mountains are free of snow.
(By Arno Balzarini -- Keystone Via Associated Press)
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Without snow to brighten the short dark days, "people are beginning to feel depressed," said Andrei Babin, a Moscow psychotherapist.
Meteorologists blame extremely strong and long-lasting cyclones over the Atlantic Ocean, but they also say the clement weather is linked to global warming.
"We have been monitoring weather for 150 years in Moscow, and we haven't seen anything like this," said Dmitry Kiktyov, deputy head of the Hydrometeorological Center of Russia. "I think it's time to change our temperature norms because the climate is changing and the last decade was very warm, much warmer than all previous decades."
Five days with record high temperatures have been posted this month in Moscow, including Friday, when the mercury hit 47.48 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Moscow's weather service.
Moscow area resorts are also without snow. "The only thing left for us to do is pray," said Nil Minazitdinov, head of the business office at the Sorochany resort near Moscow. "Our resort, like other resorts here and in Europe, have suffered great losses because of the weather."
That has skiers feeling deprived.
"It's very sad. It means we'll have to spend another weekend at home," said Yulia Vaganova, 31, an avid skier who has taken to looking at snow on the Internet. "It's absolutely impossible to ski."
In a Moscow park, Yury Zasorin, a 51-year-old street cleaner, is feeling good and taking it easy. "Last year we had to use axes to break the ice and remove huge snowdrifts," he said. "This winter is great. No snow and not so many people, so I only have a few cigarette butts to clean up."
Nearby, Natalia Ilyina, 45, who was playing with her 3-year-old daughter, Dasha, sighed and said, "We are waiting for the real winter -- snow, sun and frost -- so we can go sledding and skiing."
As the writer Aleksandr Pushkin reminds Russians in his 1833 novel-in-verse, "Evgeny Onegin," there's always January:
That year the autumn weather lingered
Around the yards, over the field
Nature waited, lost, as winter held back
Snow fell only in January, on the third, at night.
Correspondent Mary Jordan in London and special correspondent Anna Masterova in Moscow contributed to this report.
