The worst snowstorms for half a century swept across Russia's Far East overnight Tuesday, paralysing the Pacific port cities of Vladivostok and Nakhodka. Two months' worth of snow fell on the Primorye region, accompanied by gusting winds of up to 144 kilometres (90 miles) an hour which brought down power lines and cut electricity supplies to more 20 villages. "Two months of snowfall in 12 hours. We haven't seen that for 50 years," the head of the Primorye meterological agency, Boris Kubai, told RTR public television. After Primorye, the advancing snowstorm hit Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk the capital of Sakhalin island. Local authorities deployed military vehicules to clear the streets of snow in the two cities, which are home to some 800,000 people, and residents had to walk to work. Vladivostok dwellers also witnessed a rare snow thunderstorm of snowfalls accompanied by lightening and thunder.

The phenomenon, triggered by a warm front from the Yellow Sea meeting a cold front from Siberia, occured only twice in the 20th century, in 1956 and 1997, according to local meteorologists. Russia's Far East was hit by unprecedented frost, powerful floods and hurricanes last year. Meanwhile in Moscow, the thermometer plunged to minus 27 degrees Celsius (minus 17 degrees Fahrenheit). In the south, the trans-Caucasian transport axis which links southern Russia with the three republics of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, was still closed Tuesday due to heavy snowfall and the risk of avalanches.