Snow, freezing weather hit Europe, disrupt travel
Paris tourists brave bitter cold, icy chill puts many British sporting events in the deep freeze.
Snow and freezing weather swept parts of Europe today causing travel chaos for thousands and forecasters predicted no let-up in Britain's harshest cold snap in 30 years.
Rail and air travel were disrupted in Britain, France and Germany. Eurostar, the rail service linking England and France, said it was running around two-thirds of its normal Saturday service from London.
A spokesman for the train operator encouraged people not to travel unless the trip was essential.
Forecasters in Britain said icy winds from northern Europe meant the big freeze felt even colder after temperatures fell overnight to minus 14 celsius and even lower in some parts of the country.
The Met Office said up to 20 cm of snow could fall over the next 24 hours, with the southeast of the country hardest hit.
"Drifting in the very strong winds will cause even greater accumulations in places," it warned.
Temperatures looked set to remain below freezing, with some rural spots not getting above minus 10 degrees even by midday.
Lanes were closed on motorways as a rationing of grit meant hard shoulders were not treated. The government has ordered fresh supplies of salt from abroad but they were not expected to be delivered until January 22.
British Airways cancelled 50 flights from London's Heathrow Airport, while nine Easyjet flights were cancelled to and from British airports including Gatwick and Luton.
Many sports events, including football matches, racing and rugby fixtures, were cancelled because of the weather.
TRAVEL CHAOS IN GERMANY, FRANCE
Heavy snow storms in Germany caused widespread travel disruptions, with scores of flights cancelled at the country's biggest airport and delays to road traffic heading to neighbouring France. At Frankfurt airport, around 200 of 1,250 scheduled flights had been cancelled by 1130 GMT, while more than 500 trucks were held up at the A5 autobahn's border crossing to France in the southwestern town of Neuenburg, authorities said.
Southern Germany suffered the worst of the snow and winds, where hundreds of road accidents injured a number of people and caused traffic jams on several main roads, police said.
Aside from a few isolated incidents in the southeast, rail travel in Europe's largest economy was not seriously affected, a spokesman for rail operator Deutsche Bahn said.
Late yesterday, a plane departing the southern city of Nuremberg skidded from the runway and got stuck in the snow prior to take-off. No passengers were injured.
Authorities had issued warnings before low pressure front "Daisy" hit Germany this weekend, advising households to stock up on food and avoid unnecessary travel. Disruptions on Saturday were generally deemed to be less severe than expected.
The DWD meteorological service said the front would move north in the course of the day, and that winds of up to 100 kph were possible on Germany's Baltic coast.
French meteorological organisation Meteo France placed 29 of the country's departmental regions on a state of alert on Saturday because of heavy snow falls and icy roads.
Toulouse, Lourdes, Lyon, Brest and Lorient airports were closed and flights were delayed at Paris Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, Aeroports de Paris said.
Civil aviation authorities had called for a quarter of flights to be cancelled at Charles de Gaulle.
Trains between Paris and cities such as Tours, Lyon and Marseille had to travel more slowly than normal, leading to delays to services, according to rail operator SNCF.
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Joe Xuereb
Jan 10th 2010, 01:53
It always makes me smile when people say MPs want to raise taxes by deceit, as if MPs have got it in for the electorate. The same when people complain about the Government's action/inaction and refer to the Government as 'he'. The truth is that there is no reason why an MP should grasp the implications of climate change any more than the-man-in-the-street.
So dilution of the Gulf Stream is affecting the climate of Western Europe. What about the rest of the Northern Hemisphere. And the Southern Hemisphere is experiencing cooler summers. How is this. All I know is that Central London is unpleasant during heatwaves and unpleasant when it cannot decide whether to snow or not. Any snow is quickly dispersed by traffic or people. But the pavements turn into ice-sheets and they are dangerous to walk on. Provision of grit is getting limited distribution. Britain has no grit? pun intended. Finally, why would MPs use global-warming - which to most people is literally high temperatures - to raise taxes for fuel. When it is colder and therefore, we use more fuel. I don't think MPs mean to lie. I think they're as confused as the rest of us.
A. Attard
Jan 9th 2010, 23:14
@ E. Psaila
Totally agree with you! Not that global warming is not true, the world did in fact experience a rise of a fraction of a degree in temperature. And yes, it's a good idea to use clean energy. BUT global warming is just a global billion dollar business along with all the other spying technologies that are there to 'protect us' (yeah by stealing our own personal data and use it against us). The Earth's climate fluctuates from time to time and at this moment we're experiencing a rise in temperature.
Alex Ellul
Jan 9th 2010, 22:24
@Mario Desira, in the history of mankind, global warmings have always resulted in more food, a boost to civilisation, less wars and healthier beings. Cold periods produced famine, pestilence, wars, death (black death) etc. Climate change is real and noone can deny it, except those who think that they can stop the climate from changing by inducing or reducing gass in our atmsphere. The climate change dneiers are those who think that they can reduce the temperature of our planet. Please read the latest emerging science: galactic radiation and its influence on solar radiation impacting on cloud cover and thus vaying the albido effect (reflection of solar radiation by the cloud cover back towards space). Yo can find it under CERN CLOUD project. Or you a may go to the cinema and follow Hollywoodian films teling us how we are al gonna die by drowning.http://seekingalpha.com/article/175641-climategate-revolt-of-the-physicists
The current freeze is not only in western europe but all over the northern hemisphere with the southern hemisphere suffering a mild summer, and this is a n El Ninio year, when the planet should ahve gotten warmer due to the positive Pacific Decadal Oscillation.
Mario Desira
Jan 9th 2010, 20:19
What is happening is phase II of Climate Change. UK Scientists such as McGuire have long predicted that global warming will result in Global Freezing. In fact one book supporting this was turned into a cinema blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow.
The mechanics are relatively simple: Global Warming results in ice melting and hence the salinity of the oceans is diluted and reduced. This in turn affects the Gulf Steam current, which keeps freezing weather from enveloping Europe. This now seems to be turning off introducing the freezing weather the Northern Hemisphere is expieriencing.
There is no conspiracy theory in that all scientists agree Climate Change is happening: what they differ on is the percentage of human input into the equation. The nearest conspiracy is the complacent attidude of governments because if this continues we are going to expierience shocking reduction in the amount of food produced and grown. There is no way normal food output, production and delivery is maintained in this nightmarish weather.
E. Psaila
Jan 9th 2010, 19:39
@Charles J. Buttigieg
I think that most of the global warming warnings are fake, created by politicians in order to be able to introduce new taxes and increase prices on fuels, electricity etc... In a way people accept these prices and taxes because we are made believe that these are for the benefit of the environment...if they did not invent an excuse, how would they introduce these taxes??? In the same way we are loosing and we will loose many of our rights with the excuse of terrorism and safety...now the whole body scanner is coming to airports...most of these threats to our safety are created by politicians in order to be easier for them to pass laws that otherwise the people would strongly object to.
John Abela
Jan 9th 2010, 19:12
@Charles J. Buttigieg
Yep. all these happenings are just proving them right..over and over again.
and no, 'warming' does not necessarily mean HEAT. in simple terms it means the whole whackiness of the weather off the world..which is happening as predicted.
Charles J. Buttigieg
Jan 9th 2010, 18:44
Is this what our scientists are referring to when they warn us of global warming?
Please choose the reason of your report below: