Our First Winter in Astana

Steppe in the winter. A beautiful view from our window!

The first time it snowed this year was on October 9. The snow was wet and didn't stick to the ground very much. After that we had a lot of cold, rainy, muddy days for the rest of October. However at the beginning of November it snowed again, and this time the winter settled in for good. The average temperatures have been around -15 C (5 F) with lows sometimes down to -31 C (-24 F) for a few days. When you walk just a few yards outside, your eyelashes would be covered in icicles! When the temperatures drop down to -25 C (-13 F), they cancel school for grades 1-4. If the temperatures drop down to -30 C (-22 F), they cancel school for older grades as well. So far our kids’ school has been canceled 4 times, which made them really happy. We've heard that February is a very harsh month and kids miss school a lot in that month.

Our window when the temperatures outside dropped down to -30 C

Nazarbayev University after a big snowstorm the day before. See that yellow plow in the back hard at work?

Lots of snow!

We have a lot of snow here. It is usually pretty dry. For a couple of days we had some very unusual snow, something I haven’t seen before. Instead of snowflakes, we had big crystals that were almost a size of a dime. They sparkle so brightly both in the sunlight and in the moonlight like somebody dropped a handful of diamonds. Unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture of them with my camera.

The girls are looking at the falling crystals. They were so fascinated by this phenomenon! 

Our little crew!

When the snow falls here, the snowplows go right into work and scrape the roads. They always go in teams anywhere from 4 to 10 plows on each team. It is quite a sight! They all lined up diagonally and cover the entire width of a street all at once.

The city snow plow

Snow plows at work

This was a team of 8 snowplows all lined up in a perfect formation

We also had a couple of blizzards here, and those are scary!  The wind is so hard that it knocks you off your feet, and it blows the snow right into your face no matter where you are turning.

View out of our window during a blizzard

This was a sidewalk in the beginning of a blizzard

This is a sidewalk a few minutes into the blizzard

After the blizzard. The snow where Yuki is walking is about knee-deep but she can walk right on top of it because of its very hard crust.

But most of the time it is just frosty and sunny! My kind of winter! 

Coming home after ice skating.

Returning home to the university campus after a morning of skating at our local ice arena.