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Warm weather breaks Moscow records; Avalanche kills 4 Norwegian skiers in France
Warm weather breaks Moscow records; Avalanche kills 4 Norwegian skiers in France
by AFP Staff Writers
Moscow (AFP) Jan 29, 2025

January 2025 is on track to be one of the warmest in Moscow on record, meteorologists reported on Wednesday, with two of the past days breaking all-time daily temperature highs.

Thermometer readings on Wednesday have not dipped below an "April-like" 3.8 degrees Celsius (38.8 Fahrenheit), much higher than the historical average below freezing, according to Russia's Phobos weather centre.

Residents in the capital told AFP there was less snow for children to play with, and that there was "mud everywhere", making dog walks more challenging.

Experts warn more temperature records will be broken in the future as human-driven climate change disrupts global weather patterns.

"Of course, we don't like winter like this... Everything should be in moderation," 68-year-old pensioner Galina Kazakova told AFP in central Moscow.

"It is very bad for nature, because the snow should lie on the fields, so that it melts, so that everything grows well," she added.

Monday and Tuesday were the warmest of those dates since records started, while Wednesday is also set to beat its historical high, Russia's RBK news outlet reported, citing meteorologists.

"January, which is approaching a heat record, continues to surprise," meteorologist Mikhail Leus said on Telegram, posting a video of chanterelle mushrooms poking through patches of snow in the forest.

- Heat record? -

Central Russia's state meteorological service said Moscow was on track for its "second warmest January" since records began, beaten only by January 2020.

Russian state media reported January 2025 could be warmer than even that year.

Climatologist Alexey Karnaukhov was uncertain about whether this January would be the warmest.

"It's hard to say whether there will be a record. In 2020, there was no stable snow cover in Russia's midland either, and this year is not unique," Karnaukhov told AFP.

"We live in an era of global warming, warm years will become more and more frequent. Even if the current values turn out to be a record, it will definitely not be the last," he told AFP.

On the streets of the capital, residents expressed both joy and concern at the unseasonably warm weather.

"I like it all. It is very pleasant to walk," said 19-year-old student Olga Medvedeva.

"I like winter better the way it was," said Elena Aleksandrova, 73.

"We take the dog for walks, he likes to play in the snow too. Now where can you walk? There is mud everywhere."

Avalanche kills four Norwegian skiers in French Alps
Lyon (AFP) Jan 29, 2025 - An avalanche in the French Alps on Wednesday killed four Norwegian skiers swept away by the off-piste torrent of snow and ice, officials in the southeastern Savoie region told AFP.

On the same day a separate avalanche near Chamonix in the Haute-Savoie region to the north killed a Swiss skier, according to the public prosecutor's office in nearby Bonneville.

The Norwegian victims were part of a group of seven skiers caught in the avalanche in Val-Cenis, on the border with Italy.

Three were killed on the spot while another, a woman, died after being taken to hospital in Grenoble with a cardiorespiratory arrest and severe hypothermia, an official in the Savoie prefect's department said.

The remaining three were unharmed.

All were equipped with avalanche beacons as they were engaged in off-piste ski touring, the mayor of Val-Cenis, Jacques Arnoux, told AFP.

"It was an avalanche of great size which was triggered outside the ski area," he added.

A team of 10 high-mountain rescue specialists joined in the operation, according to a police source.

The victim in the Haute Savoie avalanche on Wednesday was a 30-year-old woman who was skiing off-piste on the north face of the Aiguillette des Posettes in the Mont Blanc massif, according to the office in Bonneville.

She was with her father, who was unhurt, and her brother, who was taken to the hospital for tests.

All three were equipped with transceivers and anti-avalanche airbags, the prosecutor's office added.

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