St. Petersburg temperature gap reaches 10°C, frosts intensify

On the morning of January 29, St. Petersburg«s chief meteorologist Alexander Kolesov noted that the sky had cleared in the city and the air temperature matches earlier forecasts.

“Pay attention to the distribution of air temperature across St. Petersburg. The difference between the city center and its outskirts is significant. I constantly have to mention in interviews about temperature differences of up to 8 degrees Celsius (46°F) in St. Petersburg on a calm, clear winter night. Today is another concrete confirmation of such a process,” Kolesov emphasized.

The temperature background in Leningrad Oblast is uneven. In the western part of the region, it is relatively warmer, with thermometers dropping to -23 degrees Celsius (-9°F) only on the border with Finland. In the eastern districts, a cooling to -25…-26 degrees Celsius (-13 to -15°F) has been recorded.

In the coming days, an intensification of frosts is expected, and this period will last several days. Since the air mass continues to cool, there is a possibility that the temperature record of the current winter, set on January 5 at -17.7 degrees Celsius (0°F), will be broken.

The clearing of the sky is linked to the arrival of an anticyclone. Thanks to the established clear weather, the northern lights were observed at night, light pillars in the early morning, and a bright dawn and sunrise at the beginning of the tenth hour in the morning.