A strange meteorological condition happened in Kemerovo Oblast, Russia. Over the last few days, social media users have uploaded numerous photos of scary-looking black snow lying on the streets of several cities.
The anomalous precipitation has been reported in Kemerovo, Prokopyevsk, Kiselyovsk, and Novokuznetsk.
Kemerovo Oblast is where the Kuznetsk Basin (Kuzbas), one of the world's largest coal mining areas, is located, covering an area of 70,000 square kilometres. Apparently, the black snow was caused by a malfunction in one of the coal refineries' air filtration systems.
The local prosecutor's office has already initiated an inquiry into the incident, according to Russian media.