After a winter with relatively snow, Moscow got a healthy dose of the fluffy white stuff on Tuesday, with nearly a fifth of the normal precipitation levels for February accumulating in 24 hours.
The 6 millimeters of snow Moscow received on Tuesday make up 17 percent of February's norm, Moscow weather bureau meteorologists told Interfax.
Temperatures in Moscow are 4 degree Celsius above the average for this time of year, and only 110 centimeters of snow has fallen on the city so far this winter, compared to 222 centimeters at the same point last year.
City Hall credited a combination of the weather and its own paid-parking initiative in the city center for reducing the number of cars on the roads by 55,000 compared to the daily average.
A spokesman said that paid parking made people think about the "necessity of using a personal vehicle" during periods of poor weather and said that the policy helped avoid congestion and lower the number of accidents on the city's roads.
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