Up to 10 centimeters of snow could fall Friday, the result of a front swept in from the Norwegian Sea, Interfax reported. The state weather service predicts night-time lows down to minus 13 degrees Celsius through the end of next week, with day-time highs ranging from zero to 5 degrees Celsius.
A thick layer of slush covered sidewalks across the city Friday, with street cleaners massing to clear walking routes. Traffic on Friday afternoon was no worse than usual, at a level of five on a scale of one to 10, according to data from Yandex Traffic.
Central Administrative District prefect Sergei Baidakov said in a post on his LiveJournal blog on Friday that the city was responding to resident complaints about uncleaned areas and uneven surfaces that result in puddles.
Last week, prominent blogger and photographer Ilya Varlamov posted a series of photos showing enormous puddles and grime covering ridged yellow pedestrian blocks for the blind. He accompanied the photos with an open letter to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin asking him to clean the city better.
"Dear Sergei Semyonovich! We in Moscow have a small problem — it's become impossible to walk around. Sidewalks are crammed with cars or advertising structures, your bricks were so badly laid that after winter they will need to be re-done, and sidewalks are not cleaned for some reason," Varlamov wrote.
"Why should I have to jump over puddles and replace good shoes every season?" he wrote.
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