Still No Snow

So it hasn't really snowed in Moscow in three years.

I mean, it has snowed, but it hasn't snowed.

I haven't been able to find a precipitation table online, but virtually every Muscovite I have asked has admitted that, while it is unusually warm this year, than has never been more than an inch or two of snow on the ground these past few years. Ten years ago, of course. Five years ago, sure. But not recently. And there is certainly none today.

Today, discussing the fact that I may not be able to go snowboarding on my New Years vacation time, it comes up in my Friday evening class. "You'll have to go north," they tell me. Of course there is some snow on the mountains, but not like there used to be. Not for three years.

I ask them what seems to me too obvious a question:

"Does this concern you?"

Their answer causes me to nearly fall off my chair (yes, I usually sit when I teach):

"Yes, of course. We like the snow."

Ummm....okay, not where I way going with that line of questioning.

Back home, if we went three winters without shoveling out our driveways, we'd be scared. Nevermind the "Aw dang, I really would love a white Christmas" crap that they're spouting here, but more of a "Holy shit--is climate supposed to change in half a decade like that?" kind of questioning.

And I don't know just how deeply to broach that subject with them. Are they in denial? Am I a typicfal fussy, panicked Westerner who cares "too much" about global issues because I have "nothing more pressing to worry about"?

All I know is that were this to happen at home, there would be serious questions.

Where are the questions?