65 Below: Deadly Cold in Russia

I just passed Joe Bastardi in the lounge and he was saying how incredible the winter weather is in Russia, and supposedly Moscow is having its coldest winter since 1925 (some other meteorologists disagree with that statistic and I don't know what the specifics are). In any case, it's darn cold. Today in our AccuWeather.com's world weather news summary we say:

In the news, they say that the power load in both Moscow and Russia in general has hit record levels, and that seven people have perished from the cold. Electronic signage and cash machines have been turned off to help conserve power. In parts of Siberia, oil production, which normally thrives in cold temperatures, has been forced to shut down.

The temperatures are indeed incredible. Check out the temperature plot below from 00Z time on January 19, 2006. Notice the -65 F reading in eastern Russia, and -57 in the central part of the country. Even in the west, where Moscow is, temperatures were as low as 45 below.