A massive cyclone that crushed Russia's Far East on Friday has led to a record snowfall on Kamchatka peninsula and Sakhalin Island, which lies between it and Japan.
Sakhalin residents are now plowing through gigantic snow banks all across the island, sinking in the snow and navigating solely by the road signs that poke out of the wintery drifts.
Positive thinkers have even come up with a new way of making light of the situation: they dive into giant snow drifts right out of their apartment windows.
The consequences of the weather are now being dealt with by emergency and communal services. Some villages and towns are cut off from electricity grids, with huge snow masses preventing technicians from reviving electricity connections and fixing torn power cables.
Meteorologists say Sakhalin’s capital, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, has witnessed nearly two solid weeks of ordinary precipitation in just the past 24 hours.