Russia and Eastern Europe

[mike Meehan]

During the winter I keep an eye on what is happening in Russia and eastern Europe in the winter months hoping that some will be shared with us and over the years a max of -18C at Moscow has been fairly common. 

I have not seen anything like that for this season, in fact quite a few days during the earlier part have been above freezing and most of the cold days have not really been much worse than we have had in the UK during some of our colder spells, particularly 1963. 

Is this perhaps one of the mildest winters on record so far for that part of the world? 

[jvenge]

5 minutes ago, mike Meehan said:

Is this perhaps one of the mildest winters on record so far for that part of the world? 

Maybe? It depends how narrow you want to be on the criteria. Russia as a whole was quite warm all of December. I say warm, I mean warmer than usual. See attached for the year to date and December.