Snow snarls travel across Europe - Malta temperature to drop to eight degrees tonight
A snow plough clears snow at Brussels airport, which was shut down.
Snow and freezing temperatures caused transport chaos across Europe today, with the Eurostar rail service suspended for a second day and flights grounded at snowbound airports across the continent.
Six Eurostar trains carrying more than 2,500 passengers were stuck for up to 16 hours between Friday and Saturday, five in an undersea tunnel linking Britain and France, due to technical faults caused by the wintery weather.
"We will not start services again until we're sure we can get (the trains) through safely," Richard Brown, chief executive of Eurostar, told Britain's BBC television.
Almost all international train travel was halted to and from the Netherlands, where the meteorological service issued a storm warning. Trains were delayed in Poland because of frozen points and damaged rails.
Europe's airports and airlines also were fighting a losing battle to get passengers away for the Christmas holidays as the snow continued to fall.
"There is still heavy snowfall and every time we clear a runway to permit a flight, we have to shut it down again because of the heavy snowfall," said Jan Van der Cruysse, spokesman for Brussels National Airport.
In Germany, a week of freezing temperatures and this winter's biggest snowfall led to hundreds of road accidents, with the country's third busiest airport -- Duesseldorf International -- forced to close on Sunday.
POWER CUTS
"Due to the weather, numerous delays have to be expected. In some cases, there are cancellations, particularly on the routes Frankfurt-Duesseldorf, Brussels-Amsterdam, as airports have been closed there in the course of the day," a Lufthansa spokesman said in Frankfurt.
In southern England, Gatwick and Luton airports were shut for hours on Friday, the busy Heathrow hub has had cancellations and there were cancellations at Manchester, northwest England, on Sunday because of snow and ice on the runway.
While the effects of cold snap have been nowhere near as bad as on the U.S. east coast, where more than half a 0.5 metre (22 inches) of snow was expected in some areas, it has claimed dozens of lives, damaged power lines and halted sports fixtures.
In Poland, news channel TVN24 on Sunday quoted police as saying 47 Poles, mainly homeless people, had been found frozen to death since the start of December as temperatures dropped as low as minus 18 degrees Celsius.
More than 220 villages and towns in Bulgaria were left without electricity, and toppled trees cut power in several mountainous suburbs in the capital Sofia.
An overflowing dam in the town of Zlatograd, southeast of Sofia, flooded the basements of several apartment buildings, the town's mayor told news agency Focus.
Four Serie A soccer matches were postponed in Italy.
In France, the heavy snowfall was not expected to end until Monday evening at the earliest, according to weather bureau Meteo France.
Minimum temperatures hovered close to record lows in some areas overnight, with the minimum reading in the Jura department of eastern France reaching minus 23C.
Temperatures in Moscow rose to about minus 15C on Sunday after the mercury dipped to below minus 26C on Wednesday.
The relatively warmer temperatures brought heavy snow falls in the Russian capital, blanketing Red Square and the Kremlin.
IN MALTA
Malta was spared the extreme weather but the temperature will drop to eight degrees tonight, according to the MIA Met Office. It was 14 during the day. Some activities, including a Premier League match and a ceremony in Paola where the government was to hand over a wartime shelter to a heritage association, were called off.
Popular Stories
Update 3: Woman found dead in car,...
Updated: Woman dies in car crash
Carm Mifsud Bonnici resigns after...
Part of Dwejra 'Azure window' collapses
The end of the bar that ‘never closed’
Bundy does not know whether to...
Updated - Jason Micallef demands...
This WAS the night - Kurt makes it...
Petrol price up 6c
In Discussion
Updated - Jason Micallef demands...
Gozo tunnel could take 5-7 years to...
CABS remote controlled aircraft shot...
Carm Mifsud Bonnici resigns after...
Joseph Calleja condemns portrayal of...
Updated: Labour would give...
CABS drone shot down
Second group of migrants arrives
Adrian Vassallo in scathing...
33 Comments
Post comment
Please sign in or create your Account to post comments.
Alex Ellul
Dec 23rd 2009, 14:29
@Karl Farrugia: You don't have to believe me.Just read what the CERN scientists (those scientists who are splitting the sub-atomic particles and finding God's particle (Higg's Boson). These scientists are not buying into Anthropogenic Global Warming but have their own scientific reasons to think that warmings and coolings are just natural cycles. The info is there for you to find. But of course you may be more knowledgeable and intelligent than the most intelligent scientists on earth and you don't need to do research on the issue. Believing blindly what Al Gore says is enough for you
Karl Farrugia
Dec 23rd 2009, 07:27
@ T. Gauci
Oh definitely, you;re well informed it seems.... maybe not.
In a mild climate like Malta, the differences are almost negligible. Ask out Northerner cousins and see if Norway has been getting shorter cold winters with longer wet periods.
Besides, if you are so naive as to think that climate change is an immediate 20 degree drop from one year to another, obviously you need to stop commenting here, as that's akin to discussing with a coffee table. Just a degree is enough to cause catastrophic effects on wildlife, which differently from humans, are super-sensitive.
But of course, people like Alex Ellul are nothing more than "rebels of society" who think it's cool to rebel to just about anything. Mr. Ellul, forget it, you're not 16 anymore, puberty is over.
Alex Ellul
Dec 22nd 2009, 22:42
@Karl Farrugia: Many thanks for describing to us mortals the difference between weather and climate. Now, can you explain to us the current freeze-up that has strangled the northern hemisphere of our planet, same as last winter and same as last winter in south America, if it is weather or climate? Is the global cooling that has gripped our planet since 2003 weather or climate? Also isn't the southern hemisphere in summer mode now? How come nobody is dying of sunstroke and fire? What is going wrong with global warming? Try googling this: Where has global warming gone?
Alex Ellul
Dec 22nd 2009, 21:19
@Victor Laiviera: It is not I who is denying global warming, it is the planet itself that is denying global warming and the warmist camp's death-wish of dying from heatstroke due to global warming. 80 people have died in Europe these last days due to the record extreme cold. Same in US, China, Siberia suffering same climate etc. THIS IS GLOBAL COOLING. You also called me a flat earther. This is really funny and let me tell you why: The computer models built by the Global Warming compuetr programmers are based on the assumption that the earth is flat, that the atmosphere is infinitley thick and other such fairy tales. I wonder who the flat earthers really are. May I recommend that you read some scienc e before commenting, it will save you some egg-on-face situations. By the way, did you notice that the Copenhagen crowd, while cheering on the climate change conference was waving communist flags while the snow blizzard was inundating them with snow and arctic cold?
T.gauci
Dec 22nd 2009, 17:54
@Karl Farrugia
the climate hasn't changed so what's your point ?
Victor Laiviera
Dec 22nd 2009, 16:13
I see that the flat-earthers (in their new guise of global-warming deniers) are out in force
Karl Farrugia
Dec 22nd 2009, 15:19
Since I can see, judging by the below comments, that Malta is suddenly loaded with experts and scientists, I think the only hoax is that which the government says when it refers to a lack of scientific expertise in Malta.
Anyway, sarcasm apart, I think you are mixing up "weather" with "climate". The first is a short-term, day-by-day observation of the weather, and what will happen today, tomorrow, next week, and is affected by pressure levels, winds carrying hot/cold air etc.
Climate, on the other hand, is the repetition of weather and statistical data produced over a long-term period to determine a norm (e.g. the climate in Malta is hot and dry in summer, and cold and wet in winter V.S. the temperature is 14 today and 75% humidity).
T.gauci
Dec 22nd 2009, 14:53
Cynthia Calleja@
they have been saying sea levels are going to rise this decade and guess what ? they never did
Alex Ellul
Dec 22nd 2009, 01:04
@Cynthia Calleja: and this shows why scientifically it is also a fraud. Look for the graph at the end of the second page. Should you know some basic science you would be able to understand.
http://www.weatheraction.com/docs/WANews09No101.pdf
Alex Ellul
Dec 22nd 2009, 01:01
@Cynthia Calleja: Look why Global Warming is a hoax:
The Europol police agency has reported that Europe's cap-and-trade system has large amounts organized criminal activity for the past 18 months. It's resulted in losses of roughly $7.4 billion, and the agency estimated that in some countries up to 90 percent of the entire market volume was caused by fraudulent activities.
U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas commented on the situation, saying, "The case has drawn fresh attention [to US's plan] because it looks like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice still may not understand how to stop a vastly more destructive, Bernie Madoff-like scheme from taking advantage if the nationwide cap-and-trade system is approved by Congress."
http://www.noteviljustwrong.com/blog/general/299-organized-crime-endorses-cap-and-trade-system
Alex Ellul
Dec 22nd 2009, 00:35
@Cynthia Calleja, the link you provided led me to skeptic site, contrary to what you tried to imply. Anyways, The COP15 meeting that flopped, like when a mountain gives birth to tiny mouse, resulted in Mr. Obama escaping hastily back from one of the worst snow blizzards ever experienced in Copenhagen during December, to another worse blizzard in the (dis)United States, a devastating snow storm that has made half of the USA practically immobilised and frozen. Of course, this global snow storm is the effect of global warming, just like when I freeze up when I put my feet inside the oven. Truth is, scientifically measured truth, that the planet is actually, globally, cooling. It has been cooling since ealy this decade, contrary to what Michael Mann of the hockey-stick graph fame tried to predict earlier on, some years ago, for this year. ALL GLOBAL WARMING PREDICITONS HAVE GONE AWRY, WRONG, AWFULLY WRONG. Now there is no better proof then the test of time and time has proved AGW wrong, not good, bad science that turned into a scam by polticians and multinationals like ENRON and Al Gore, who, today, after having invested in Carbon Credits is worth a billion.
George Pace
Dec 21st 2009, 23:31
@ M.Spiteri
Even less wonder there was the 1989 revolution.
.
M Caruana
Dec 21st 2009, 23:22
@Trevor Lorenzo Mizzi
The cold in Ontario Canada is not the same cold in Malta. We Maltese feel it worst because of high humidity. I' ve been abroad during winter, and the cold in other countries is completely different. :))) still cold but different.
Karl Abela
Dec 21st 2009, 18:41
I am almost convinced that Malta will become a skiing resort in the future and the alps will be a dried up desert.
Cynthia Calleja
Dec 21st 2009, 17:52
@ all those who are calling Global Warming a 'hoax' I suggest that you get the fact first prior to making fools of yourselves. Global warming may in fact paradoxically also lead to some extreme cold as it does with extreme heat. However, as with the climate (and not the weather) global warming is calculated through the mean annual temperatures over time and not one time occurances. Inform yourself http://www.globalwarming.org/
Ivan Attard
Dec 21st 2009, 17:08
Thank God the Copenhagen enacted sham was a flop. Who gives a damn about Global Warming? It is a HUGE myth swallowed by thos persons all over the world especially the Leftist-Liberal-Green circus! Now how can I contribute a little further CO2 emissions?
Trevor Lorenzo Mizzi
Dec 21st 2009, 15:00
" It was 14 during the day. Some activities, including a Premier League match and a ceremony in Paola where the government was to hand over a wartime shelter to a heritage association, were called off."
Called off because it was 14 deg. C during the day?
What a bunch of softies .
They do not know what real cold is all about, they should try Thunderbay Ontario Canada in December to get a taste of real cold weather.
John Azzopoardi
Feb 4th, 00:40
Totally agree. 14 C is the equivalent of 56-58 F. Are you guys kidding me.
Seriously. Even 8 degrees is not that bad.
Alex Ellul
Dec 21st 2009, 12:54
Anybody interested in what type of climate the earth went through the past 5000 years: http://c3headlines.typepad.com/.a/6a010536b58035970c0120a62f87f3970c-pi
It just shows that the warming we have experienced during the latter part of the last century was only natural, that the current cooling is natural as the previous 4 warmings and coolings were. There were no coal and oil fired power stations 1000, 2000 and 3000 years ago. Science proves that climate change, like false prophets, has always been with us and it will always be.
Alex Ellul
Dec 21st 2009, 12:11
If the climate hoax was the other way round, that is, that the planet is cooling, the hoaxers would still apply their inverted argument, that is, that when we have warmer summers it is due to global cooling, The truth is that the planet has been cooling, and this is official climate records based on SATELLITE monitoring and not by the false scientists at CRU-UK who invented AGW.
The global warmists apply their win-win but illogical and scientifically stupid argument that if we have warm temperatures then it is global warming and if we have continuously, winter-after-winter record cold temperatures, then it is global warming too. I say: Global arrogance. The least the warmists need to be is logical. May I refer you to my extensive comments at: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20091220/letters/credibility-in-climate-change-debate
c schembri
Dec 21st 2009, 11:52
With this extreme weather setting in with a vengeance so soon after the Copenhagen debacle, it's hard not to see a certain sinister connection..
but as long as we have taken " a first positive step in the right direction" we can sleep soundly at night safe in the knowledge that our leaders have everything under control!
It;s time for a radical rethink of the multilateral process here with a change in tack needed, based on the imposition of unilateral sanctions on those recalcitrant countries in the developing world who are refusing to play ball by shouldering their responsibilities in this process. Enough talk and more action please. We cannot simply continue with business as usual in the current circumstances.
Peter Korsten
Dec 21st 2009, 09:36
You don't have to be a rocket scientist - or a climate scientist for that matter - to figure out that the weather in the last two decades has become less stable: floods everywhere, freak weather, the lot.
Unfortunately, though, some people don't even see that, and believe that 'global warming' means 'warmer winters'. Quite a few of those have commented here.
Sigh. Invent a phrase to make things easier to understand, and still they will believe what they want to believe. Or they have very, very short memory spans, that could be the case as well.
Joseph Cauchi
Dec 21st 2009, 08:52
@ Joe Cassar and followers,
You swallowed it, hook, line and sinker!
Pity!
JC.
Victor Laiviera
Dec 21st 2009, 08:01
Th world's progress (and problem solving) has always been hampered by the head-in-the-sand deniers like Jonas Thor et al who always try to take the opposite view to get some colour and excitement in their otherwise drab little lives.
They are today's flat-earthers.
D. Pulis
Dec 21st 2009, 01:48
I say Global warming could solve this (cold temperatures)
Noel Zahra
Dec 20th 2009, 23:56
Global warming will bring about extremes in weather patterns - colder, wetter winters and warmer drier summers, autumn and spring will become virtually non-existent. Climate models are predicting more severe weather patterns with an increase of a few deg celsius in temprature.
M.Spiteri
Dec 20th 2009, 22:20
@Vincent Galea
No wonder for the 1917 revolution!
Joe Cassar
Dec 20th 2009, 21:29
@ Mr D Bonello.
Yes, this is Global Warming. Contrary to what some simple minds think, Global Warming does not mean that it will get warmer everywhere all the time.
It means that extreme weather will get more extreme - at both ends of the spectrum
Joseph Cauchi
Dec 20th 2009, 20:35
How long are we going to be taken for a ride by the hoax of the century?
If this is due to Global Warming, then I can hardly imagine if it were to be to Global COOLING!
JC.
T.gauci
Dec 20th 2009, 20:18
Global warming is a political myth.
Jonas Thor
Dec 20th 2009, 19:44
@ D. Bonello. No! it is not called Global warming anymore. That is old fashion Al Gore lingo. The replacement is now called "Climate Change". This new lingo provides Politicos a more broader definement for future snows, winds, rains, ice, heat, glacier meltdown, high tides and even earthquakes. The public was getting tired of hearing Global Warming, so to keep the cash flowing it s now called "Climate Change"
D.Bonello
Dec 20th 2009, 19:09
Is this Global warming?
Vincent Galea
Dec 20th 2009, 18:49
Once a Russian soldier was whipped. His crime ?. While standing watch on a wintry night like the ones hitting Europe these days his feet had frozen in their boots.
" Had you remembered the oath you took to serve the Czar " his commander berated him
" the memory would have kept you warm."
This story has inspired my services of my parents of beloved memory.