The strength of the Russian winter is so severe that it has transformed an abandoned residence into an incredible icy palace – reminiscent of the Disney film Frozen where everything Snow Queen Elsa touched turned to ice.
The house in Ekaterinburg – a city near the Ural Mountains – experienced temperatures that plummeted to -17C in January. But in other parts of Russia over the last few days the temperature has plummeted to as low as -62C.
The property in Ekaterinburg resembles something out of a children’s fairy story because a burst water main has almost entirely coated each room in ice, Russia Today reported.
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The winter sunshine belies the intense cold at the house in Ekaterinburg
The inside of the house shows the full force- and beauty – of winter’s grip
Parts of the residence are reminiscent of a children’s fairy tale
Some rooms of the property resemble an ice cave
Images from the house show how the former occupants’ belongings have been frosted over, while the floor of the house has been carpeted in a white layer of snow.
The incursion of winter has transformed the dilapidated building into something of beauty, Russia Today said, as the sitting room resembles an icy cave and old furniture is encrusted with shiny crystals of frozen water.
The Russian capital Moscow experienced its darkest December on record in 2017, with just six minutes of sunshine.
Russia is currently experiencing a colder winter than usual
It usually gets an average of about an hour a day during the final month of the year but that fell dramatically at the end of 2017.
The meteorological station of the Moscow State University reported that for the whole of December the sun in the Moscow sky appeared only for ‘six minutes or seven minutes’, according to the TASS news agency.
Until now, the darkest month in Moscow was December 2000, when only three hours of sunshine were recorded.
According to Roman Vilfand, head of the Russian Meteorological Centre, Moscow’s exceptionally overcast weather in December was in fact due to higher than average temperatures, the Moscow Times reported.
But elsewhere winter’s grip has been much more severe than usual.
Russia has some of the coldest inhabited places on earth. Temperatures in the remote, diamond-rich Russian region of Yakutia on recently plunged to -67C in some areas.
Temperature in the remote Siberian village of Oymyakon averaged -50C in January
Oymyakon is the coldest permanently inhabited settlement in the world
A woman crossing the road in Moscow in December 2017, when the Russian capital experienced just six minutes of sunshine in December
Temperatures in Russia, including Moscow (pictured on January 8) are now plummeting again, with the mercury falling down to near record lows
The remote Siberian village of Oymyakon has established a reputation for being the coldest permanently inhabited settlement on earth – where the average temperature in January is -50C and inhabitant’s eye lashes freeze solid only a few moments after stepping outside.
It has been so icy in Oymyakon that a new electronic thermometer conked out after recording a bone-cracking -62C.
Elsewhere last weekend, two men froze to death when they tried to walk to a nearby farm after their car broke down. Three other men who were with them survived because they were wearing warmer clothes, local investigators reported on Monday.
In Yakutia – about 3,300 miles east of Moscow – where students routinely go to school in -40C, school was canceled throughout the region.
Some people have said their temperature readings have been as low as -67C – less than 1C off the lowest accepted temperature for a permanent settlement anywhere in the world.