Moscow blanketed by major early snowfall

MOSCOW (AP) — A large, early snowstorm raging in Moscow disrupted flights and created havoc on the roads on Thursday.

Yelena Temakina, chief of the forecast department at Moscow’s Meteorological Office, said 20 centimeters (8 inches) of snow had fallen in 24 hours. That is half of Moscow’s typical amount of snow for the whole of November.

Moscow’s City Hall said it expects the snowstorm, which is due to continue at least until Friday morning, to be the biggest in November in 50 years.

The roads in the capital have been clogged up since early Thursday morning and about 70 flights from Moscow’s largest airport, Domodedovo, were disrupted overnight. On Thursday, all three of the capital’s airports were working normally.

Motorists complained about the lack of efforts to clear the snow from the streets. In one section of Moscow’s beltway the traffic was paralyzed for at least 30 kilometers (18 miles) on Thursday afternoon, according to the traffic tracker Yandex.Probki.