This year Moscow will get an extra sunny day. The city will shell out a ton of rubles to pay for cloud seeding in order to create perfect weather for Spring and Labor Day, which in 2016 coincides with Orthodox Easter. According to the official website of state procurement, Moscow has announced a tender for the city's weather protection on May 1, 2016. The maximum cost of the contract is 85,941,509 rubles ($1.32 million).
Russia has been playing with its forecast since Soviet times and usually gets rid of pesky Moscow clouds so that sunshine can prevail during three major celebrations per year – Victory Day, City Day and Russia Day. Over the past year it has spent a record $6.6 million on the seeding of clouds over Moscow.
