This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Abroad from the KU Centers for East Asian Studies and Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies.

In Kansas we say, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait 5 minutes.” In Siberia, it seems, you only have to wait a few seconds. One hot, sunny afternoon this July, beachgoers here in Novosibirsk were shocked by a sudden temperature drop of 35 degrees resulting in a hailstorm that one sunbather described as “bullets from the sky.” By the time the surprise summer storm was over, residents had been pounded with hail the size of golf balls and hen’s eggs. The hailstorm wasn't the only unusual weather in Russia that day: A summer snowstorm hit the country's eastern Ural region, causing snowdrifts and dropping temperatures to below freezing. While the very idea of extreme summer weather might not come as a surprise to Kansans, there is one fact in this Postcard that could raise an eyebrow: Wait. Siberia has beaches?

With thanks to Adrienne Landry for this text, from the KU Center for East Asian Studies, this is Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.