A snowfall and cold wind arrived in Yerevan, and Armenia as a whole, early on Friday to end a dry and relatively warm spell of weather in the Armenian capital untypical for this time of the year.

The press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Armenia says most of locations in Armenia will see occasional snow events in the coming days, with fog and wind storms to be observed in certain places.

According to the Ministry data, as of Friday morning all roads and highways in Armenia, except the Selim Pass, which has been closed since earlier this week, are drivable. The Berd-Chambarak, Berd-Ijevan, Vanadzor-Alaverdi road sections as well as the Dilijan serpentine are in icy condition.

The current winter, like the two previous winters, is not abundant in snow in Armenia. Zaruhi Petrosyan, of the Hydrometeorology Service, says it is quite normal.

“December was snowy, but January not so much, but in the coming days this shortage will be filled, as the air temperature across the republic is expected to drop by 5-6 degrees Celsius on January 20, and further by 2-4 degrees Celsius during the next night, with snowfall expected,” Petrosyan told ArmeniaNow, adding that January 22-24 is expected to stay dry, with air temperatures growing by 2-4 degrees Centigrade.

Friday afternoon air temperature in Yerevan is -1C (30.2F), with -12C (10.4F) forecast for the night.

Vasily Abrahamyan, a representative of the Yerevan Municipality’s Utilities Department, told ArmeniaNow that the city authorities had been well prepared for the snow and started street and sidewalk cleaning activities early on, beginning 4.00 am.

“At this moment 166 vehicles are employed in street cleaning and gritting work. We have 2,000 tons of salt and about 4000 cubic meters of sand, which are quite enough for the kind of precipitation,” said Abrahamyan.

The highest recorded air temperature for Yerevan for January 20 was observed in 1961 when thermometers showed 12.5 C (54.5 F), with the lowest being recorded back in 1906, which was -22.8 C (-9.04 F).