Europe: Life comes to standstill due to icy weather

  • A major part of Europe continues to be severely hit by cold with strong winds and powerful storms that have resulted in traffic chaos, power cuts and travel delays. More heavy snowfall have been forecasted for Germany, expecting this to be the worst of the weather heading eastwards.

    In France, nearly 350,000 homes faced temporary power cuts, while there were severe flood warnings on England's east coast.

    As per the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the cold weather has been the reason behind countless road accidents and school closures apart from cancelled flights. WMO has also warned about the impact of the weather on the migrants and homeless.

    UNHCR - the UN refugee agency earlier confirmed death of several migrants from cold and exhaustion in Bulgaria. While many of the countries are suffering from heaviest snowfall in many years, Danube river and Bosporus sea strait have been closed to shipping.

    As per WMO, Montenegro, Serbia, the republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria had temperatures as low as -15C over five consecutive days. Also the surrounding countries of Italy, Greece, Turkey and Romania were 5 to 10C colder than normal.