Overnight ice rain and north winds turned Vladivostok, Russia's Pacific capital, and most of the Primorye region into a frozen land with hundreds of power lines cut by wet snow. The storm left 120,000 people without electricity and many without heating and water.
Facilities for producing weapons grade plutonium believed safe despite fierce flames caused by wildfires.
Some 5.4 million hectares of land are ablaze across Russia, mostly in Siberia and the country's far east. Water sprayed by planes to fight the fires is ‘now as expensive as Champagne’.
Wildfires on permafrost are ravaging Yakutia - or the Sakha Republic - the largest and coldest entity of the Russian Federation. The scale is mesmerizing. There are some 300 separate fires, now covering 12,140 square kilometers - but only around half of these are being tackled, because they pose a threat to people. The rest are burning unchecked.
Cries to urgently call state of emergency in Irkutsk region as it chokes in smoke.
Even school children are in firefighting brigades in some areas of Yakutia.
Father missing under snow; more than 200 people continue search and rescue at -23C, snowstorm and bleak light of polar night.
Omsk region reported ‘record high’ number of wildfires and cases of dry grass burning, that turn into wildfires this spring, with one day last week counting nearly a thousand new events a day. Omsk region emergency services said the number of wildfires is seven to ten times above the norm.
Video shows hero climbers manually breaking ice off its cable stays at height of 324m (1,063ft) in Vladivostok.
A new study has warned of the risk to buildings in urban areas across Russia's permafrost zone caused by climate change. The Russian-US analysis says a worst-case scenario could lead to a 75-95% 'reduction in bearing capacity throughout the permafrost region by 2050'.
Arctic permafrost is degrading much faster than expected, warn scientists from the extreme north of Yakutia. It took two years for a building in the port town of Chersky on the Kolyma River, to snap in the middle after the once solid permafrost could no longer hold its supporting foundation.
The fires are now raging some 10 to 15 kilometers from the megaslump crater - a large hole in the frozen Arctic soil which highlights the dramatic speed of thawing permafrost.
Dry conditions fuel dozens of fires and result in a state of emergency across the Siberian Federal District.
One region alone - Yakutia - has 5 million tons scrap metal dumped in polar regions, an ugly Soviet legacy.
With Russia on Covid-19 lockdown, 77 houses were burned down in Novosibirsk and Kemerovo regions.
A massive landslide damaged 28 houses in a village along Jammu-Srinagar national highway in Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir, rendering hundreds of people homeless, officials said on Sunday.
The stormy wind at 30 metres per second rose in Chita in the afternoon on Wednesday 13 May.
At least 90 left homeless in one village after raging infernos, say reports.
Toxic fuel from 21,000 ton leak reaches pristine lake, bypassing floating booms, as rivers of diesel pollution cover-up is exposed.
State of emergency in Irkutsk region as President Vladimir Putin flies in amid carnage from heavy rain - with ‘worse to come’.
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