Wintry weather has caught a number of large cities off guard in Russia's Far East and southern Siberia.

In the Chita and Magadan regions, heavy snow and strong winds paralyzed road traffic and left entire districts without electricity.

Municipal services today managed to clear the Kolyma motorway connecting the Magadan region with the Republic of Yakutiya, but several large roads remain closed due to poor visibility.

Some schools have been closed, while several small villages have been cut off from the rest of the region because of poor visibility on the roads.

The heavy snowfall has also disrupted the largest regional airports.

Meteorologists say the last two days have seen enough snow for two weeks.

The weather in the Russian capital got so cold that Moscow authorities – for the first time in history – decided to turn heaters on in before the temperatures dropped below eight degrees Celsius, like it always was. 

This year's winter is expected to be cold and long. Russia’s utility service says it is ready to withstand all the weather caprices the country’s citizens are going to face.

Meanwhile, meteorologists are predicting a few more days of Indian summer in October. They say temperatures could reach 20 degrees Celsius next week.