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3.8 Environmental impacts of wind and blizzards

Strong winds and blizzards were identified frequently as common extreme weather events by people from both NAO and Kamchatka. More than half of the people interviewed in NAO identified strong wind and blizzards as being common for the region. However a much lower number of people described strong winds and blizzards as disasters with serious impact on nature and human beings.

A Nenets man from Khongurei talked about the impact of strong wind, �There is a small forest near the station, with birch trees. It used to be normal. Once I went there after a strong wind, and it looked as if some aliens had visited it. The trees were bent, not broken, and they were tall, about 3 meters tall. I couldn�t recognize the place as I hadn�t been there for a long time, It must have been a hurricane.  A Nenets hunter and fisher from Bugrino� explained, �We have high waves during a storm, so they wash the bank, and it slides�. A Nenets reindeer herder, hunter and fisher from Narian-Mar said: �During a blizzard, ptarmigan are carried away in the direction the wind blows. It happened in 2000. Now they are starting to appear. In spring you also see that the number of the geese has been reduced because they go to the South and die in the fields fertilized with nitre.