Berlin, Jan 6, (dpa/GNA) – Snow and freezing conditions have shut down rail and air travel, led to long motorway tailbacks and closed schools across Europe, as a cold wave that struck the continent over the weekend persisted into Tuesday.
Dutch train services were brought to an almost complete standstill on Tuesday morning, and more than 600 flights were cancelled at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, where dozens of passengers have been stranded and awaiting onward connections for several days.
Dutch carrier KLM said it is running out of de-icing fluid after using some 85,000 litres a day in recent days.
In France, school buses stopped running, and train services were disrupted in some regions. Flights were cancelled in Paris and in Nantes in the west.
Tailbacks in the Paris region were reported to have reached a total of 1,000 kilometres on Monday afternoon, with conditions easing slightly into Tuesday. Five road deaths were reported.
The French weather service expects a new winter front to move in on Wednesday, affecting the mid-west to the north of the country.
Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot suggested that 40% of flights between 9 am and 2 pm at Charles de Gaulle, France’s largest airport, are likely to be affected.
The number of flights at Paris’s second airport, Orly, will likely be down by 25% in the morning, Tabarot added. He also called on people in the Paris region to postpone their journeys planned for the morning.
In the United Kingdom, hundreds of schools remained closed in Scotland. Public transport trains failed to run due to ice on the power lines. The weather service predicted heavy snow for the south of the country for the rest of the week.
Temperatures plunged to minus 40 degrees Celsius in northern Sweden on Tuesday, while the Danish authorities urged people in North Jutland to stay at home on Wednesday in expectation of a snowstorm.
In Switzerland, La Brévine in Neuchâtel, traditionally the coldest settlement at an altitude of more than 1,000 metres, reported minus 30.3 degrees Celsius at the start of the week. The Alp Hintergräppelen highland in St Gallen posted minus 37.1 degrees Celsius.
Czech weather authorities predicted temperatures would remain below zero throughout the country over coming days, with minus 25 degrees Celsius recorded near the border with Germany on Tuesday.
In Prague, tens of thousands were without heating or hot water after a district heating pipe failed.
Temperatures plunged as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius in Poland.
In the Romanian district of Alba, almost 8,000 households remained without power for the fourth day in a row.
In the eastern Bosnian town of GoraĹľde, the water supply collapsed after the Drina river burst its banks and flooded the pumps at the local waterworks.
In Croatia and Slovenia, the authorities issued warnings of expected heavy snowfall.
In Hungary, heavy snowfall caused traffic disruptions. Dozens of local buses were cancelled in the Budapest metropolitan area, the north-eastern region of Borsod and the southern districts of Baranya and Zala.
Some trains to Budapest’s West Station ended their journey at a suburban station due to frozen points. Additional snowfall is expected overnight.
In Spain, where many homes are poorly equipped to deal with the cold, snow and freezing conditions were recorded in Madrid and the higher parts of Mallorca. The weather service forecast temperatures plunging to minus 10 degrees Celsius.
By contrast, temperatures were unusually high in south-eastern Bulgaria at 19 degrees, but the weather service was predicting snow and a cold front from Thursday.
GNA