Russia's Northeast Coast Is Buried In Unbelievably Deep Snow

Digging out from incredible snows in Kamchatka, a
region on the Pacific Ocean in Northeast Russia 

I saw a lot of images on social media showing ridiculous amounts of snow in Kamchatka, a  region o Russia on the Pacific Coast.

Those images looked so surreal that I thought it was all just AI slop.

Turns out at least a few of those images are the real deal, even if many others were fake.

Kamchatka, a city and region near Russia's Northeast Coast, has had storm after storm since December. The snow depth on the ground is at least as deep as a normal person is tall. 

According to the Moscow Times:

"In December, Petropavlovsk-Kamchastsky saw triple the monthly average of snowfall, while January 1-16 saw around 150% more than the monthly average for the period. The average height of snow in the city reached 170 centimeters (5.5 feet) with drifts exceeding 2.5 meters (8 feet) in certain neighborhoods.

'The last time we saw something like this was over 50 years ago, in the early 1970,' said Vera Polyakov, head of Kamchatka's Hydrometeorology Center. 'These conditions are exceptionally rare as far as modern observations go.'"

Reuters reports that close to 33 feet of snow has fallen since early December in the region around Kamchatka.

Schools have been closed and public transport is shut down. 

In the past couple of days, temperatures have risen to just above freezing. That is causing huge amounts of snow to slide off roofs, which is dangerous for anyone standing nearby. A 63-year-old man died when  he was struck by a massive snowfall off of a nearby roof. 

Enormous, falling icicles are another danger. 

More snow and wind is forecast for Kamchatka today through next Monday with temperatures hovering near freezing. 

The Kamchatka region is on Russia's northeastern coast, across the Bering Sea.  The area has a population of roughly 310,00 people.

Storms similar to nor'easters in New England and southeastern Canada regularly sweep through the region. Kamchatka often sees big snowstorms. But they've never seen anything like this in many decades, at least.

If you think you've heard of Kamchatka before, it might be from this summer, when a powerful offshore earthquake rattled the region and generated a damaging tsunami that slammed into the coast. 

Video:

A lot of videos I've seen of Kamchatka's snow appear to be at least partly AI. I've never seen so much AI slop online connected to one incident. There were several "photos" of snow drifts reaching to the 10th or higher floors of apartment blocks. Didn't happen. Welcome to the grim new world in which everything is fake, and nothing can be trusted, I guess.

But I found one video that I THINK is genuine. Part of it contains images of people gleefully jumping from upper story windows in apartment blocks and floofing into deep snow, Yes, I know "floofing" isn't a real word, but you get the picture. 

  

Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below click on that.