Snow-covered palm trees in the Mediterranean, travel chaos on the continent and a rise in heating costs are the results of an unusual European cold snap.
Airports in Paris and Amsterdam, where cancellations stranded thousands of passengers overnight, struggled with icy runways and heavy delays on Thursday as a result of the heavy late winter conditions.
Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport has limited the number of incoming European flights due to snowfall but is going ahead with departures to help the stranded.
“As long as there are problems with dealing with incoming flights, we are giving priority to ensuring smooth departures. We are working on this flat out,” an air traffic control spokeswoman for Schiphol said on Thursday.
In some parts of The Netherlands snowfall was up to 20 inches, the highest levels recorded for March in the past 20 to 25 years, the Dutch meteorological institute said.
Airport operators in France also said flights from Paris’ two main airports Roissy and Orly were delayed by up to two hours due to snow on the runways and that bad weather conditions in other parts of Europe had caused delays.
Highway havoc as well
Automotive travel and remote areas of Europe also groaned under the weight of heavy snow.
Italy’s port city of Genoa was paralyzed by a blanket of rare late winter white stuff that caused traffic chaos as far away as Milan, in one of the coldest starts to March on record, meteorologists said.
Authorities closed Genoa airport, shut city schools and ordered buses off the roads as a blizzard blanketed the Liguria coastline. Milan also got a rare covering during the morning, as did the nearby cities of Turin and Parma.
Police advised people not to travel across much of the north unless their journeys were essential.
In Turin, the thermometer fell to a record 17 Fahrenheit overnight, while Rome suffered its coldest March for 18 years.
Heavy snowfall and below-freezing temperatures across most of northern and central Greece this week have cut off dozens of mountain villages, blocked roads and led authorities to close some schools.
Flooding problems
The river Evros along the northeastern border with Turkey has swelled in the past weeks and authorities have evacuated one village and gone ahead with controlled flooding of thousands of hectares of farmland to reduce the high water level.
The river is expected to swell further following renewed heavy snowfall this week and warmer temperatures expected in the coming days. Authorities have warned more villages could be evacuated.
In Spain, renowned for its warm winter sunshine in parts, palm trees in the Mediterranean city of Barcelona have been topped with snow and Madrid has seen its heaviest snowfall for about 15 years.
Weather experts said the country has experienced its lowest temperatures in decades this month and the government has been warning people about driving in dangerous conditions.
“The cold snap of the last 3 days has been one of three or four of the most significant in the last 30 to 40 years,” said Angel Ribera, head of forecasting at the National Meteorological Institute.
The cold weather has also caused discomfort for those staying at home and hit the wallets of many Europeans.
In central France, some 6,000 households were without electricity and a gas energy company in Britain has calculated that Britons are expected to fork out an extra $44 million a day on top of normal bills to keep warm in the “big chill.”
Ironically, Portugal was worried about one of its worst droughts in a century. About 75 percent of the Iberian nation is suffering from “extreme and severe” drought during what should be its rainy season, Meteorology Institute President Aderito Serrao told TSF radio.
