Dozens of flights cancelled after Kazakh capital snowstorm

Dozens of flights were canceled Thursday after a snowstorm hit Kazakhstan's capital Nur-Sultan amid unseasonably warm temperatures. Strong winds began battering the city of one million on Wednesday evening, leading to flights to Frankfurt, Moscow, and Tashkent being canceled Thursday.

Other flights were delayed by up to 12 hours. The national meteorological agency said it expected snowfall, hail, and winds reaching 30 meters per second to continue for the next three days in the northern region where Nur-Sultan is located.

The agency said that temperatures hovering just below zero in the region are 8 to 13 degrees Celsius warmer than usual at this time of year. City authorities on Thursday canceled school classes -- a regular occurrence during winters in the world's second coldest capital after Mongolia's Ulaanbaatar.

Steppe city Nur-Sultan became Kazakhstan's capital in 1997, replacing Almaty which lies 1,000 kilometers to the south.