Residents of the city of Veliky Novgorod in Central Russia eye-witnessed a very unusual phenomenon. Flakes of fiberglass covered the territory of the kindergarten and apartment buildings in Derevyanitsy, sowing panic among the locals. The incident attracted attention of government agencies for environmental control and the local department of the Federal Security Bureau. It turned out that nature had nothing to do with the incident.
The phenomenon was caused by the Novgorod Fiberglass Plant, located in the above-mentioned area of the city. The company violated federal laws on sanitary and epidemiological welfare of the population, on the protection of the environment and atmospheric air, officials said.
Reports of unusual precipitation in Russian regions appear every now and then. Reports of colored snow are especially frequent. Thus, in March 2010, Krasnodar and Stavropol regions saw pink and brown snow. Meteorologists attributed the phenomenon to the presence of particles of dust and sand, windblown from North Africaю
In February 2007, in the capital of the Altai Republic, the city of Gorno-Altaisk, gray snow fell. Epidemiology experts explained the event to "the presence of fine earth dust " and reassured that there was nothing wrong with radiation background.
Also in 2007, five districts of the Omsk region saw orange snow with oily stains and musty smell. Colored snow also fell in Tyumen and Tomsk regions. In February of this year, in the Arkhangelsk region, many roofs were "decorated" with red icicles.