Except for cool weather along the Black Sea, where temperatures remain above 8°C (47°F), winters throughout Russia are cold. Snow cover in southern Russia lasts from 60 to 80 days and from 260 to 280 days in the Far North. Above the Arctic Circle, the land is in total darkness for six months of the year. Temperatures across this stretch of Russia can reach brutally cold levels. In January, Tiksi averages a high temperature of only -28°C (-19°F). Winter temperatures drop to -35 to -40°C (-31 to -58°F).

Winters in Northern and Central European Russia can be very cold. Archangel swings between lacking real darkness in summer to having only a few hours of murky daylight in winter, when January's high temperature averages just -11°C (12°F). Moscow is frozen by the end of November. With an average January high temperature of just -6°C (21°F), snow remains on the ground until early April. Winter in southern European Russia and across the steppes is much shorter than in the north, but very cold nonetheless. January's average daily high temperature in Volgograd is only -5°C (23°F). The warming influence of the Black Sea makes for mild winters across the lowlands along its north and northeast coasts. Sochi, situated on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, has a daily average high temperature in January of 8°C (47°F).

Winter over Siberia is in full force by November from the Ural Mountains to the Sea of Okhotsk, freezing the landscape solid.°By January, it is virtually impossible to find any spot in Siberia above freezing. At Yakutsk, the average daily high temperature is only -37°C (-36F°F.°The lowest temperature in this central Siberian city was recorded one January, when the temperature dropped to a deadly -58°C (-73°F). The first constant snow cover falls over Irkutsk during the first week of November. The bone-chilling cold sets in toward the end of December and lasts through January, when the average daily high temperature is -15°C (5°F). Irkutsk set its lowest recorded temperature in January at -42°C (-45°F). Siberian winters are so cold you can hear what some guidebooks call, "the whisper of the stars":  as you exhale, water vapor crystallizes almost instantly, then bursts with a barely audible tinkle.

Winter across the Russian Far East is generally milder than Siberia. Vladivostok, on Russia's Pacific coast, experiences slightly milder weather than elsewhere in the Russian Far East. Its -9°C (15°F) January average daily high temperature seems almost tropical compared to Oymyakon, the coldest inhabited place on earth. Nestled in a mountain valley north of the Suntar Khayata Range in northeastern Siberia, Oymyakon sees winter temperatures drop as low as -65°C (-85°F).