At the end of January 2014, a snowstorm buried Rostov-on-Don and Taganrog in southern Russia. On 28 January Rostov received about a month’s worth of precipitation in a single day, strong winds built drifts as tall as a person, and on 30 January the Rostov region declared a state of emergency.
The Rostov snowstorm of January 2014
Heavy snow began on 27 January and kept falling until the end of the week. Rostov-on-Don and Taganrog, the two largest cities of the region, were hit hardest. A hard frost and strong wind followed, turning fresh snow into drifts that reached the roofs of parked cars.
The regional government declared an emergency regime on Thursday 30 January. Russia’s Emergency Situations Minister, Vladimir Puchkov, criticised the region for not acting sooner and travelled to Rostov to oversee the clean-up himself.
Gridlock on the M4 Don highway
Traffic across the city and the surrounding area came to a standstill. On 31 January, queues stretched for about 20 km along parts of the federal M4 “Don” highway. In the city, photos show residents pushing a stuck bus by hand.
The same day, the regional emergencies ministry sent a helicopter to evacuate people trapped on a snowbound highway, among them ten with signs of frostbite, a girl with appendicitis and a pregnant woman. By 2 February, police reported that all the jams in the region had been cleared.
Bread queues and cut-off villages
With roads blocked, deliveries broke down. Shops in Rostov-on-Don and Taganrog ran short of bread and other food, queues formed at stores and mobile kiosks, and prosecutors opened an inquiry into the bread shortages. Governor Vasily Golubev gave the city five days to return to normal, starting with reliable bread and food supplies.
Several villages near Rostov were cut off by drifts, and some residents lost power and heating. People dug narrow trenches to reach their front doors and local shops, and a few took to dog sleds to get around.
Why drifts grow so deep
Drifts are not snowfall totals. Wind lifts fallen snow and drops it wherever the air slows down: behind buildings, around parked cars, in courtyards and against fences. That is why one car in these photos is buried to the roof while the road beside it is passable.
The gallery was published on russiatrek.org by Sergei Rzhevsky in February 2014. He joked that a Russian “snowbomb” meant for Sochi, which was about to host the Winter Olympics, had missed its target and landed on Rostov.
Explore more: snow depth in a defined measurement setting; another city storm recorded in time-lapse.
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