Moscow brings in fake snow for New Year after warmest December since 1886

'It’s not festive at all,' locals complain

Russia saw its hottest year on record in 2019 (AFP via Getty Images)

Authorities have been forced to dump artificial snow in Moscow for the city's New Year's Eve celebrations, after the Russian capital experienced its warmest December in more than a century.

Images of the fake snow being delivered have prompted amusement on social media, with one observer joking: “With Moscow’s budget you can buy everything. Even winter.”

But the unseasonable temperatures have fuelled fears about the impact the climate crisis is having on Russia, which meteorologists said on Monday saw its warmest year on record in 2019.

This month was the warmest December in Moscow for 133 years, with the temperature climbing above 6C on 18 December – topping a record of 5.3C set in 1886. The average air temperature for that date is -6.2C, according to Russia’s Hydrometeorological Research Centre.

Snowdrops and rhododendron have bloomed early in city gardens, mistaking the soft soil for the onset of spring, while the hibernation of some animals at Moscow zoo has also been disrupted.

But the most obvious effect of the milder winter is the lack of snow on streets which would normally be blanketed white over the festive season.

That prompted city officials to send a dumping truck to lay a strip of artificial snow along Tverskaya Street, a major road in the centre of the capital. Piles of fake snow have been pictured at other locations, including Red Square.

Alexei Nemeryuk, head of the Moscow Trade and Services Department, told the Russian news agency Interfax the snow was brought from ice rinks in the city to create a “snowboard slide” in Tverskaya Street.

But locals said the stand-in snow failed to give them a festive feeling.

“It’s already turned beige or grey,” one told the Moscow Times. Another complained: “It’s not festive at all.”

On Monday, Russia's Gidromedtsentr weather service confirmed 2019 had been the country's warmest year since records began 140 years ago.

Moscow's average temperature hit 7.7C this year, topping the previous record by 0.3C.

President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged that climate change could be catastrophic for his country, but has refused to accept the scientific consensus that human activity is causing global warming.