Blue snow has covered Chelyabinsk, a Russian town in the Ural Mountains, almost two years to the day after a meteor traveling at over 34,000 miles per hour exploded over the city with the force of 500 kilotons of TNT, creating a shock wave that injured over 1,500 people. Is something attracting anomalies to Chelyabinsk in mid-February? Why is Russia having a season of colored snow?

The blue snow fell on Chelyabinsk less than two weeks after orange snow covered the Russian city of Saratov. Government officials blamed that color on a windstorm in the Sahara desert that blew orange sand into the atmosphere which was carried to Russia before falling. The Chelyabinsk residents wearing T-shirts that read (in Russian) “I Survived the Great 2013 Meteor Explosion” are going to need a better explanation than that.

Local resident Dmitry Kudryonok said the snow smelled like iron. News presenter Alexandra Artamonova from Telefact, who wasn’t catching snowflakes on her tongue, nonetheless said she could “feel a sweet taste in the mouth.” She also reported that others complained of having sore throats after breathing near the snow. Most residents wanted an explanation before cleaning off cars and sidewalks, but neither the Emergencies ministry nor the Ministry of Ecology gave any comments.

Finally, the Viteks Company released a statement that one of its factories in Chelyabinsk was making blue dye for Easter eggs and had a “minor” spill. Not surprisingly, it gave assurances that the chemicals causing the blue snow were not toxic and posed no health hazard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVRkUhS9c9Q

Why is Russia having a spate of off-hued snow? If the reason for the blue snow in Chelyabinsk was a chemical spill , why didn’t the local government respond quickly with information and cleanup? If the chemicals weren’t hazardous, why didn’t the company admit it sooner? Was it really responsible or was this a cover-up? Why is Chelyabinsk having such strange occurrences? Is something else happening there?

Questions, questions, questions.