What were the measured snowfall and precipitation totals in Petropavlovsk‑Kamchatsky during December 2025–January 2026 according to the Kamchatka Hydrometeorological Center?

1. What the local hydrometeorologists reported — raw totals and units

The head of the Kamchatka Hydrometeorology Center, Vera Polyakova, told regional outlets that Petropavlovsk‑Kamchatsky saw approximately 370 mm of precipitation in December 2025 (reported as 37 cm in some outlets), and an additional roughly 163–163.6 mm of precipitation during the first half of January 2026 (Jan. 1–16) — figures carried by Xinhua and Izvestia that explicitly attribute the numbers to the Kamchatka center ^{[2] [3]}. Several English-language reports restated those amounts as 37 centimeters (14.5 inches) in December and 16.36 centimeters (6.5 inches) in the first half of January, reflecting the same metric totals in different unit formats ^{[1] [5]}.

2. How those precipitation totals translate into snowfall and snow depths

Agencies and outlets translated the high precipitation into exceptional snow accumulations: the Hydrometeorological Center reported an official snow depth of about 170 cm (about five and a half feet) in Petropavlovsk‑Kamchatsky on Jan. 16, 2026 — a figure cited by The New York Times and echoed in Xinhua’s reporting on Jan. 16–19 conditions ^{[4] [2]}. Local reporting and emergency-service statements also described areas where snow depths exceeded that — including local media citing drifts and measurements in other settlements that reached well above a metre — but the center’s measured urban depth around Jan. 16 is reported at roughly 170 cm ^{[2] [6]}.

3. Context: how extreme these totals were compared with normal expectations

The Kamchatka Hydrometeorological Center characterized the event as exceptional: Izvestia reported Polyakova saying December’s 370 mm equaled about 316% of the monthly norm and the early‑January 163.6 mm equaled roughly 149% of the period’s norm, conveying that the city received more than three times its usual December precipitation and roughly 1.5 times the typical first‑half‑of‑January amount ^[3]. Multiple news organizations repeated the “three times December, 150% first half of January” framing, signaling broad agreement on the anomaly ^{[1] [5] [7]}.

4. How national and international outlets reported the same numbers

Xinhua, Reuters, The New York Times and other international outlets cited the hydrometeorological center’s December and mid‑January figures — Xinhua giving 370 mm for December and 163 mm for Jan. 1–16, Reuters and others noting record comparisons and extreme drifts while referencing monitoring stations and local officials ^{[2] [8] [4]}. Meduza and AccuWeather also translated the totals into centimeters and inches for audiences, reiterating the 37 cm (370 mm) December total and the ~16.36 cm (163.6 mm) early‑January addition ^{[1] [5]}.

5. Limits of reporting and remaining uncertainties

All cited figures for precipitation and snow depth in this summary come from the Kamchatka Hydrometeorological Center as reported by regional and international news outlets; the sources consistently give December as ~370 mm and Jan. 1–16 as ~163–163.6 mm and a snow depth near 170 cm on Jan. 16 ^{[3] [2] [4]}. Independent station‑level time series, station IDs, or daily breakdowns beyond those aggregated totals were not provided in the cited coverage, so finer temporal or spatial disaggregation (for example, daily millimeter totals, separate liquid‑equivalent versus dry‑snow conversions at specific observation sites) cannot be confirmed from these sources alone ^{[2] [3] [1]}.