Siberia, famous for its long winters and massive snowfalls, could receive even more snow due to global warming, a Russian geographer has warned.
Russian Academy of Science Geography Institute director Vladimir Kotlyakov claimed that climate change could mean more snow for the northern hemisphere and Siberian region.
"The paradox arises - during warming, which we are seeing now, the earth will get more snow. This is happening in large areas of Siberia where there is more snow than a decade or two ago," Kotlyakov said.
"The increase in snowfall in the northern hemisphere was first noted in the 1960s when satellite observation was first introduced," he was quoted by Ria Novosti as saying.
"We are now in an era of global warming, and the rising air temperature leads to increased humidity, so the snowfall increases in cold areas," he explained.
In December 2012 the area of snow cover in the northern hemisphere was at its highest for 130 years at almost 3 million square kilometres, or over 200,000 km above the previous record in 1985, according to the United States National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA), the report said.
On average, American weather experts say, the area of snow cover in the northern hemisphere in winter is rising at a rate of 0.1 per cent per decade.
