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

For decades, Earth’s magnetic north pole has been slowly drifting across the Arctic, but recent shifts in its path have caught the attention of scientists—and those who rely on precise navigation systems.

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.

Clashes with Russia over northern territories is a constant in the history of the past centuries. But today there is no rush of Heilongjiang province residents to seek a home in Siberia at a

Russian nuclear submarines patrol the Arctic seas, while a growing fleet of nuclear-powered ice breakers projects Kremlin power across the region. China and Russia have conducted joint military drills in the Arctic. Beijing is also seeking access to valuable minerals beneath the ice.

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

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.