Russia comes in from the cold, with flowers blooming around Moscow in January

January in Russia conjures up images of Muscovites crunching through the snow in bulky coats -- not bunches of delicate snowdrops blooming in grassy areas around still-standing Christmas trees.

Instead of ice choking the Moscow River and the biting cold of the “moroz” – the hard freeze that stings the face -- the capital’s sidewalks are bare, and temperatures are well above freezing in what is usually one of the coldest months of the year.

Even in Siberia and in many places across the country that spans 11 time zones, it's been unusually warm, too, not unlike elsewhere in the world.

According to Europe’s climate agency Copernicus, the first 27 days of 2025 globally are the hottest first 27 days on record, dating back to 1940. The start of 2025 on average is 0.11 degrees Celsius warmer than the start of 2024, the previous hottest start.

Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that extreme weather events worldwide, from the fires in Los Angeles to heat waves in Saudi Arabia and the current mild temperatures in Russia are “with a very high degree of scientific certainty” connected to human-caused global warming.

“And we see this across the board. It is impossible today to disentangle the human influence on these events. It’s never that we cause them entirely, but we amplify them and make them worse,” Rockström said.

Russia’s Hydrometeorological Research Center reported Tuesday that temperatures in eight Russian regions reached highs on Monday that broke decades-old records.

Roman Vilfand, head of research at the agency, told Russian media last week that January could become the warmest on record in the country. The current record was set in January 2020, when the average monthly temperature stood at 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit).

Earlier this month, for the traditional Russian Orthodox feast of the Epiphany, when worshippers plunge into icy waters of frozen lakes and rivers, festivities were canceled in some regions with emergency services saying it was unsafe due to thin ice.

It has taken longer than usual for ice to form on Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest freshwater lake, which is typically covered in ice thick enough for vehicles to drive on it.

Ice formation has been “very slow” this year, Vilfand said earlier this month.

Moscow-based meteorologist Leonid Starkov said warm Atlantic air moving at high speed brought a “significant temperature anomaly” to the region.

“So the winter is in question, even in Siberia,” he said.

The absence of snow in Moscow on Wednesday brought out the blossoming snowdrops in the botanical gardens of Moscow State University, a picturesque neighborhood that overlooks the capital. A decorated Christmas tree stood on the grounds in front of the Stalin-era architecture.

It's not uncommon to see these flowers “in February, in March, during the thaw,” said biologist Vladimir Chub, the director of the gardens, but this year the university “got lucky” to have them blossom earlier.

“I’m asking myself — where is the winter?” said one Muscovite who identified herself only as Yulia to an AP reporter.

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Associated Press reporters Kirill Zarubin in Moscow and Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed.