In fact, frosty winters in Europe and especially in Russia are not uncommon. Natural anomalies are reflected in ancient documents that have miraculously reached us and can be perfectly traced from the stories of contemporaries and photographs on the Internet.
Here we have collected for you the TOP of the most abnormally cold winters of the 20th century.
1. At the beginning of February 2012, severe frosts shackled the Black Sea off the coast of Ukraine. The thickness of the ice near the shore reached 40 cm. All the piers were covered with an ice crust, which made it almost impossible to move along them. Due to the current situation, navigation was stopped indefinitely in all Black Sea ports of Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria. The sea became unsuitable for navigation, but was excellent for skating.
There was a message in the media that the previous time the sea froze was only in 1977. However, there are enough photographs on the Internet of the frozen piers of Odessa in 2011 and 2005.
2. The winter of 2002 was notable for its cold weather. In Germany, due to frost, ship traffic along the Main-Danube Canal, an important European water transport artery, was completely stopped. The thickness of the ice, into which more than 20 ships were frozen, reached 70 cm in some places. At the same time, due to severe cold, the Venice lagoon and gondolas froze into the ice. Similar weather was observed in 1985.
3. On February 18, 1979, it was snowing in the Sahara Desert. And it was not just a “snowball” that melted upon contact with the ground. Due to the snowdrifts that formed within a few hours of snowfall, a short disruption of traffic was noted in Algeria!
4. Some sources refer to the winter of 1968-1969 as the “winter of violent frosts.” On the Black Sea coast of Russia, temperatures remained below -40°C for 26 days. Severe hurricanes gave way to severe frosts. This continued throughout the three winter months. In mid-February, the Caspian Sea became covered with ice. Europe was in a fever from constant snowfalls.
5. 1962-1963 the cold once again shackled Europe. The rivers of France and Germany froze. In the UK, due to five-meter snowdrifts, the country's Football Association was forced to cancel the regular FA Cup. For three long months, the British, not accustomed to frosts of -20°C, waited for the end of the popular competition. Only on March 11 were the last games of the tournament, which began in January, completed.
In February 1963, the British rode bicycles along the Thames... and the Russians were surprised when in the spring they discovered that 90% of the hardiest variety of apples, Antonovka, had frozen out.
6. 1953-1954, in a vast area from the Atlantic to the Urals, from November to April there was a fierce cold, the northern part of the Black Sea and the entire water area of the Azov Sea froze. The canals of Venice and the Danish Strait are frozen.
7. The weather was exceptionally harsh in Russia in February 1929. The average temperature in Moscow dropped to -20°C, which is 10 degrees below normal. Even in the south, in Tbilisi and Yalta, temperatures dropped below zero. On the southern coast of Crimea the temperature reached -22-25°C. Many fruit trees died. Citrus fruits and vineyards froze.
8. In 1911, throughout the European part of Russia, the temperature remained at -40 for a month. In the northern regions of the country, the mercury dropped to -55°C. Before going out, people smeared their faces with goose fat to avoid frostbite.
The winter of 1911 is famous for the fact that even Niagara Falls could not withstand the severe frosts and froze!
And finally, a short digest of other abnormally cold winters captured in historical documents.
In 1709 in Paris, at a temperature of -24°C, wine froze in the cellars of winemakers.
In 1558, an entire army of 40,000 men was camped on the frozen Danube, and in France frozen wine was sold in pieces by the weight.
In 1468, wine in the cellars of Burgundy froze.
In 1420 there were terrible frosts in Paris. Freezing people fell dead in the streets. Wolves ran into the city to devour the corpses lying unburied.
In 1407-1408, all Swiss lakes froze.
In 1365, the Rhine was covered with ice for three months.
In 1326, the Mediterranean Sea froze completely.
In 1316, all the bridges in Paris were destroyed by ice.
In 1210, the Po and Rhone rivers froze. In Venice, wagon trains walked across the frozen Adriatic Sea.
In 1010, frosts shackled the Turkish Black Sea coast. Terrible cold reached Africa, where the lower reaches of the Nile River were covered with ice.
In 859, the Adriatic Sea was so frozen that it was possible to walk to Venice.
In 763, the Black Sea and Dardanelles were covered with a 75-centimeter layer of ice.
In 739, the Bosporus Strait froze.
In the recent minus twenty, Ulyanovsk residents only talked about the terrible frost, in which it was scary to go outside. But old-timers remember much more chilling times for both soul and body. At the border of 1978-1979, the temperature in the city dropped below forty, and there was also a New Year's heating crisis. The radiators in the apartments burst, Goncharova Street turned into a large skating rink, people slept in fur coats, but celebrated the New Year, continued to go to work and even to the library. We decided to ask the old-timers about what a truly frosty New Year was like.
Famous local historian Sergei Petrov: “We watched “Ogonyok”, and Alla Pugacheva’s song “It will happen again” was right on the topic.”
- It was terrible cold, it was minus 45-50. On the right bank of the city, a terrible mistake was made: instead of draining the water from the heating systems in this frost, they began to raise its temperature, which led to the rupture of the batteries on December 31, 1978. I was just traveling on the Moscow-Ulyanovsk train and was supposed to arrive in the city on December 31 at about 8 am. But he arrived only at one in the morning on January 1, 1979. We barely made it: the rails were bursting, wires were flying, and we stood there for a long time. The guides tried their best to help us, I was amazed by the heroism of the stoker guys who wanted to warm us up, one even burned his hands. Relatives of those who were on the train gathered at the station. Every three hours they announced that the train was delayed, people became worried. My father met me, strangers gave us a ride in a UAZ, and many stayed overnight in the ice station building. After all this, we also celebrated the New Year. I remember watching “Ogonyok”, and Alla Pugacheva’s song “It will happen again” was right on the theme. We warmed ourselves with gas, some with electric heating pads, and some with our own stove - there was more of a private sector in Ulyanovsk at that time.
The worst thing happened in maternity hospitals on the right bank, where there was also no heating. The babies were wrapped up and sent from the right bank beyond the Volga to the maternity hospital and hospitals.
Restoration work lasted about a month, burst batteries were lying all over the city, and the whole country provided assistance. People helped the repairmen, fed and watered them, and carried out food. New batteries were installed at state expense. At the beginning of January it got warmer and a lot of snow fell, probably half a meter. There were no trains, no planes. After this battery situation, there was only a brief message from the authorities. The city began to clear the streets of snow, and only Lenin Square was demonstratively cleared last - as a kind of sign of concern for the people.
Overall, things got better pretty quickly. There was no panic. The people were hardened by troubles and wars. If this happened now, the city would be over. Every now and then we hear in the news about utility failures. Now the load on the power grid has increased, the lights are often turned off, and the networks can’t handle it. The city is practically unprepared for emergency situations.
Olga Dmitrievna, celebrated 1979 on Karl Liebknecht Street: “This is how the New Year turned out - sewer aromas, cold radiators, darkness”
- Despite the fact that more than 30 years have passed, I remember very well how we celebrated the New Year, 1979. For several days it was terribly cold, below minus forty, but we went to work and warmed ourselves with hot tea. The working day has been slightly shortened. What I remember most was December 31, 1978. Due to severe frosts, a number of accidents occurred in the city center, pipes burst, batteries flew. It’s good that the plumbers in our house figured out to drain the water in time, so we were one of the lucky few who didn’t have to change the batteries, but what we faced was enough. A few hours before the New Year, a sewer system burst in our apartment, and all the “good” flowed down our corridor (first floor). But when we called the emergency crew, we were told that our problem was nonsense compared to the disaster in the city. Utility services then worked seven days a week, day and night. And that’s what they told us: take rags and wipe it yourself. We took rags and began to wipe. And just at that moment the electricity in our house was turned off. This is how the New Year turned out - sewer aromas, cold radiators, darkness. The New Year was celebrated by candlelight.
There was no heating for several days, we turned on all four gas burners and the oven - they worked around the clock (it’s good that there was no meter then). To keep warm, the whole family slept in one room, turned on the heater, a lot of electricity burned up, but then they recalculated us: instead of 4 kopecks per kilowatt, we paid 2 kopecks for that period. When they gave us hot water, we started pouring a full bath of hot water, opened the bathroom door and warmed ourselves up. As a result, the walls of the corner room were covered with frost several centimeters thick due to dampness and cold. It was very beautiful, you could shoot a winter fairy tale. But when the heating was turned on, this beauty turned into streams of water, damp wallpaper, and mold. We had to do a major overhaul.
Nikolai Alexandrovich, celebrated the year 1979 on Minaev Street: “Water flowed along Goncharov, starting from the bridal salon”
- In our house, the pipes first “swelled” 2-3 times, and then the batteries simply began to burst, fragments flew, one even almost hit our relative. It took about ten days for the radiators and heating to be restored, we slept in fur coats and covered ourselves with several blankets. What saved us, of course, was the gas that was used for heating. The heat lamp also helped. I remember that it was only +5 in the apartment. There was no heating at work either; they worked in outerwear. Along Goncharova, starting from the bridal salon, water flowed, which immediately froze - it turned out to be such a long skating rink. It’s good that at least in some houses the men and the mechanics figured out to drain the water - the batteries there, of course, didn’t burst. Needless to say, the New Year was memorable.
Maria Igorevna, preparing for a session at the Palace of Books in the cold of 1978-1979: “We copied books by hand, and the paste in our pen froze.”
- To prepare for the session, you had to sit in the Book Palace. And it doesn’t matter that it’s minus fifty outside and it’s cold in the library. We didn’t have the Internet or a photocopier back then. Imagine how we sat in this cold and copied books by hand, and the paste in our pen froze. We sat in coats, mittens and felt boots. And in this cold, readers still came to the Book Palace - there was no other way out. We were amazed at the responsibility of the library workers, who did not grumble, saying, why did you come, you should sit at home, but worked very harmoniously. Regular readers could always count on a cup of tea to warm up. Even on December 31, the library was open until six in the evening. The library staff told us that they organized work in a gentle manner. In order to work less than full time in the cold, they divided the shift in half between employees. Moreover, those who lived close to the center worked in the evening hours, and those who had a long way to get to the center worked in the morning hours.
The other day I was riding a tram and accidentally overheard a conversation between two old women talking about the cold weather and old times. “Is it frosty now? – one was surprised. - That's before! And we worked and didn’t complain! And now it’s okay, you can live...”
By the middle of the New Year holidays, the thermometer approached -30 and hovered in this area for several days. A real cold test. However, it is worth noting that this is not the first time Moscow has encountered such temperatures.
When over the last 100 years did Moscow experience its most severe frosts —>
1900s Moscow in winter. View of the Kremlin.
1900s Moscow in winter. Kremlin. Nikolaevsky Palace.
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, January frosts of 25-30 degrees in Moscow were almost the norm. It’s not for nothing that we still say “Christmas frosts”, “Epiphany frosts”, taking the cold snap these days for granted.
1900s Moscow in winter. Red Square, Historical Museum
1900s Moscow in winter. Tverskoy Boulevard and warmed Muscovites.
However, even at that time there were extreme winters: for example, in 1902, the thermometer dropped below 30 degrees in early December. And already at the end of December, as if in response to the harsh winter, several shelters are opened in Moscow with the help of philanthropists - the goal is to save homeless people from frostbite. 
1902 Kuznetsky Bridge. Pay attention to the “uniform” of the policeman.
At the end of December 1907, the temperature during the week did not rise above -30 degrees. In 1910, Muscovites celebrated Christmas at a temperature of -37 degrees.
1910. Moscow in winter. Tverskaya street.
Things didn't get any easier after the revolution. The general surrounding devastation, lack of food and firewood during the years of war communism was sometimes aggravated by the weather. So, if you believe the diaries and notes of ordinary people, on the 20th of 1919 such severe frosts set in Moscow (-36 degrees on December 22, 1919) that the tram stopped due to ice on the wires, and for several days, wrapped in all available clothes , Muscovites were forced to get to work exclusively on foot, sometimes covering considerable distances.
1919 Moscow street cleaners on Arbat Square.
From 1927 to 1937, for 11 years in a row, January alternated every year in Moscow with average monthly temperatures below and above -10 degrees. And in 1927 there was the most severe frost in the history of meteorological observations on Epiphany (-32 degrees)
1920s Moscow in winter. View of Zaryadye.
1925 Moscow in winter. Private houses near the river Tarakanovka (Khoroshevo-Mnevniki)
1926 Moscow in winter. Cab. (photo by A. Rodchenko)
1930 Moscow in winter. At the monument to Pushkin. (photo by A. Rodchenko)
1931 Tram on Sukharevskaya Square.
The absolute cold record was set in Moscow in the winter of 1940-41.
At this time, Muscovites experienced real severe frosts that lasted 3 months. The temperature dropped to minus 40 degrees Celsius and even lower. The record temperature was minus 42 degrees (01/17/41).
1941 January. Freezing.
Then many Muscovites suffered serious frostbite, most enterprises were closed, since people could not work in such frosts, provided that the boiler houses could not properly heat the premises. City authorities spent a long time calculating the damage from such abnormally cold weather (burst pipes in residential buildings, non-working transport, suspended street work).
Damage was also caused to agriculture. That cold year, many apple trees, which had previously been considered frost-resistant, froze.
January 1942 also turned out to be cold. The same frosts that drove the Nazis away from Moscow (-40 degrees on January 20, 1942)
1942 Snow removal on Manezhnaya Square.
1942 Mounted patrol at the Library named after. Lenin.
The indicators approached the 40-degree mark later (-38 in January 1956, -36 in 1959), but still the thermometer no longer fell so low.
1956 on Revolution Square
1956 At a newsstand
1956 Snow removal
1956 Hot Pies
1959 At the Metropol Hotel
1959
1959 Queue at the mausoleum, despite the frost
1959 At the Metropol.
The older generation probably still remembers the severe cold that engulfed the European part of the USSR in the winter of 1978-1979. Very low temperatures at the end of December 1978 were observed from the Urals to Belarus, from the Leningrad region to the south of Tambov. At the end of December 1978, during a period of severe cooling in the European territory of the USSR, new minimum temperatures of those days were established. For example, in Moscow on December 30-31, the temperature at night dropped to -36.5° and -36.7°, respectively. And according to some data, in different areas of Moscow on December 30-31, 1978, the temperature at night dropped to -34°...-40°. In the Moscow region, on those December days before New Year's, the temperature at night dropped to -45°! The frosts were such that during the cold spell the mercury in thermometers froze.
1978 Weather forecast.
Here are a few more records from that anomalous winter:
— the largest monthly temperature changes in winter in Moscow were observed in December 1978, 40.3 degrees: from +2.3 degrees on the 15th to -37.9 degrees on the 31st.,
— On December 16, 1978, the temperature difference per day was 26.3 degrees, from +1.3 to -25 degrees,
— from December 28 to December 30, 1978, the temperature dropped by 32.4 degrees
— the last winter in which all 3 calendar months of winter in Moscow had a minimum temperature of less than -25 C° was the winter of 1978-1979
Over the past 25 years, the coldest winter in Moscow was the winter of 2011. Then the frosts lasted for two whole months, during which the temperature did not rise above minus 20 degrees Celsius. Just before the New Year, freezing rain fell in the capital, which lasted for 2 days. This led to icing and the collapse of some trees, as well as power lines, and then frosts hit again.
2011. Consequences of freezing rain.
The current frosts for several days are, of course, rather the norm.
Now there are weather disasters. After a positive thaw in Moscow there is a sharp cold snap, minus 15 with a breeze. Ukraine is covered with snow. Snow everywhere (Türkiye, Spain, France, USA). The radio relay through which my provider communicates with the upstream Internet provider has frozen and is causing losses of up to 20%.
It's time to remember the New Year 1979.
At the end of December 1978, there was an influx of air masses from Arctic latitudes, which captured vast territories of northern Europe, the entire Urals and northern Western Siberia. In Kaluga it was minus 34-35C. In Moscow and the Moscow region the temperature on New Year's Eve reached minus 40-45! In Votkinsk (this is far from the north, but only a little over a thousand kilometers east of Moscow) it was MINUS 50.
Residents of Votkinsk still remember this New Year's Eve. Why, because of such cold during the day, the bridge connecting the large Berezovka microdistrict with the rest of the city fell, and a hot water supply pipe ran under the bridge deck. An urgently assembled team of repairmen (there was no need to specially assemble them; the workers, as soon as they learned about the accident, came themselves) hastily laid a temporary pipe across the ice of the Berezovsky Bay. As far as I remember the stories of eyewitnesses, they worked in shifts of only 10-15 minutes, replacing each other and warming up. Hot water supply to the area was restored a couple of hours before the New Year. Then there were several days (or weeks) of repairing the bridge and restoring the permanent pipeline, but I remember this part of the story less well.
Here's what else they write about the weather in Chelyabinsk at that time:
"Attention! According to the weather service, on the night of January 1 in the northern half of the region the air temperature is expected to reach 45-50 below zero, in Chelyabinsk minus 45-47 C." This unusual message was heard on the Chelyabinsk regional radio on the afternoon of December 31.
By evening, the alcohol thermometer pins froze at minus 40-43 C, and the temperature continued to fall. According to eyewitnesses, it was difficult to breathe on the street, the skin of the face seemed to be “tanned” in the cold, rare passers-by had artificial leather bags burst? Severe frost hampered the work of urban and railway transport: in many areas the contact network was broken and the switches were frozen over. There were a lot of frostbite...
Finally, the chimes heralded the arrival of the new year. I won’t be mistaken if I say that immediately after the first toasts to the new year 1979, many Chelyabinsk residents rushed to look at the thermometers - outside the window it was minus 48.3 degrees. The same temperature was recorded in Verkhneuralsk (-48 C). In Nyazepetrovsk at that time it was minus 52 C. Such an air temperature was recorded for the first time in the entire history of weather observations in the Chelyabinsk region. It was formed by the air masses of the Arctic latitudes, which in the last days of December captured vast territories of northern Europe, the entire Urals and the north of Western Siberia.
It should be especially noted that this particular night (from December 31 to January 1) was the coldest of the entire winter of 78/79. This was such a holiday.
What are we all lamenting – “global warming”, “ice age”? Some people even fear the end of the world. But, if you look closely, in the old days it was worse, but Rus' still stands and has not gone away!
Smoked Chronicles
Weather anomalies began to be noted in chronicles in the 10th century. But thermometers had not yet been invented, so we can only guess how much hotter it was, for example, in 1370 than in 2010. Only verbal descriptions awaken our soul to compassion. This is how the drought of that very year 1370 is described: “That same summer there was a sign in the sun, black places like nails, and there was a great darkness for two months, and the darkness was so great, as if for two fathoms you could not see a person in front of you in my face, but I don’t see birds flying through the air, but I fall from the air to the ground, and so the walker walks on the ground. Then life was dear, and there was a shortage of people, and the scarcity of food, the dearness was great. Then the summer was dry, the crops had dried up, and the forests and boars and oak groves and swamps were burning, and in some places the earth was hotter.” It was also mentioned that this year there was a massive death of animals and birds due to abnormally hot weather.
Very fresh
All foreigners who wrote about Rus' always mentioned its harsh winters. They also made an impression on domestic historians. Frosts were the first to be mentioned in chronicles as weather anomalies. Thus, the “Russian Chronograph” wrote that in 742 “the winter was fierce: the Pontic Sea froze 30 cubits, and snow fell on it 20 cubits.” And in 785 it was reported that the severe frost lasted 100 and 20 days.
Fierce summer
And the coldest summer happened in 1604, when in June there was “great snow, and there was frost, we rode in a sleigh...” The chronicler claims that the snowdrifts reached in some places to the waist of a tall man, but historians still considered this a fiction.
You won't get enough of the sun
The drought of 1920-1921 made its way into the history books. She is interesting primarily because the responsibility for the terrible famine in the Volga region was entirely shifted to her. The temperature remained at +35 for more than a month, crops died, and rivers became shallow. People ate clay, grass, insects, and in some areas, cannibalism spread like a terrible disease. However, such a large-scale catastrophe might not have happened if the natural disaster had not been superimposed on the predatory policy towards the peasantry.
General Frost
Moroz the voivode fought not only against his own people, but also against Napoleon and the Nazis in 1941. The “invincible” Germans had never seen or felt anything like this in their lives. In order for a tank column to move, a fire had to be lit under each vehicle. Fuel froze in the tanks, many types of new armor-piercing weapons, which were the special pride of the German army, simply refused to serve if the temperature dropped below - 30. Plus, the uniform let us down. Cases of mass frostbite were recorded in reports already from the first days of November.
From frost to fire
Our parents remember the abnormally hot Moscow summer of 1972. The thermometer exceeded +30 degrees 26 times. Again, of course, the harvest was lost, even winter crops, since the winter preceding the drought was cold and with little snow. It didn’t take long for the peat bogs to catch fire. Conscripts were sent to extinguish the forest fires. Despite this, entire villages burned down, and there were casualties among the rescuers themselves.
New Year by the fire
At the end of the last century, the capital remembered the unusually cold winter of 1978-1979. The cold on New Year's Eve was especially hard. Suddenly, power failures occurred in some areas, and people who were celebrating with might and main were left without electricity, and some residents of “new buildings” were left without heating. But resilient Muscovites took to the streets to dance and light bonfires from old things and fallen branches. Just like our Slavic ancestors before the invention of central heating and power supply.
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