MOSCOW, December 4. /TASS/. A record amount of snow fell on Moscow over the past day as almost a third of the average monthly precipitation came down on the Russian capital, a leading expert at the Fobos weather service wrote on his Telegram channel.

"Over the course of the past 24 hours, 25% to 30% of the monthly snowfall has fallen on Moscow," Yevgeny Tishkovets said.

Usually, 1 mm of precipitation equals roughly 1 cm of snow, the expert explained, as he surmised early this morning that a record snowfall must have blanketed the Russian capital. He estimated that a total of 30 centimeters of snow came down, exceeding the amount that is considered normal for the early winter by as much as fourfold.

Russian Weather Service head Roman Vilfand told TASS later that snowdrifts as tall as 36 centimeters were registered, the highest on record in 145 years of meteorological observations. The previous record of 30 centimeters was set in 1952, he said.