Heavy snowfall began on Sunday night and lasted through most of Monday; the weather service reported that last night, between 7 and 13 cm of snow fell across Moscow
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© RIA Novosti . Alexei Naumov
Many Moscow residents ventured out to use their cars on Monday, ignoring traffic police warnings, and spent most of the day in traffic jams, while road services had to remove the snow from the roads every two hours
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© RIA Novosti . Alexei Naumov
This winter’s first major snowfall hit Moscow on December 7, taking weather and road services by surprise
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© RIA Novosti . Alexei Naumov
The city was covered in 15cm of snow instead of the expected one or two centimeters. The city government even reprimanded the weather service
Over 15,000 snowplows and other snow-removal equipment drove through Moscow three times last night to clear away the snow
On Monday, snowplows cleaned the streets several times, at 10 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m., and 4 p.m.
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© RIA Novosti . Andrei Stenin
More than 120 cubic meters of snow was removed from Moscow in 24 hours, to permanent snow-melting stations or mobile melting facilities
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© RIA Novosti . Andrei Stenin
Highway service teams focused on driveways and pedestrian approaches to schools, metro stations, hospitals, fire depots and other social facilities
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© RIA Novosti . Andrei Stenin
Thaws followed by more snowfall lead to black ice and snow drifts, which are often the reason for minor traffic accidents. The traffic police are warning Moscow residents against using their cars and advising them to use public transportation if possible
