Temperatures dipped to 5 degrees in Evansville early Monday morning, and the wind chill reached minus-6 degrees.

January in Russia conjures up images of Muscovites crunching through the snow in bulky coats -- not bunches of delicate snowdrops blooming in grassy areas around still-standing Christmas trees

Russia's legendary cold winters are not what they used to be. Early snowdrops, mild January temperatures and a lack of ice on rivers and lakes are all unwelcome signs of climate change, according to plant scientists and meteorologists.

Siberia, with its long, brutal winters, has been a favorite spot for Russian leaders to send convicts for labor-camp sentences for the past four to five centuries. There are large expanses of wilderness in Siberia, and around Novosibirsk, where the locals point to a lack of mountains to keep Arctic winds at bay.