The snowstorm that hit the Midwest on Thursday is nothing compared to the weather in Russia.
Russia has been experiencing record-breaking low temperatures that killed 45 people last week, the Moscow Times reported Wednesday. Nearly 270 people were hospitalized in Russia, more than half with frostbite. The temperatures are the coldest to hit the country since 1938.
Additionally, 37 people have died in Ukraine this month due to subzero temperatures.
Siberia has experienced even harsher weather, with cities like Novosibirsk dipping to minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday. With the icy wind chill, it felt like minus 47.
The cold in Siberia nearly killed two circus elephants after their trailer caught fire, RIA Novosti reported.
A Russian circus trainer claims he saved the lives of the two elephants by buying two cases of vodka from a nearby village, mixing the alcohol with warm water, and giving it to the freezing animals, named Magda and Jenny.
“After that they roared as if they were in the jungle. Apparently they were happy,” a district official said.
The freezing temperatures across Siberia, Russia and the Ukraine are expected to last through the middle of next week, according to weather forecasts.