Cold snap blows over Europe, no relief seen
Source: Agencies |
January 9, 2010, Saturday
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SNOW settling near France's Mediterranean shores. German parents battling to buy sleds. British horse races called off over too much ice.
A European cold snap -- awfully cold in some places -- saw snow clog roads and airports yesterday, knock out electricity and induce hoorays from schoolchildren kept home from school. The low temperatures, prompted by an Arctic weather system, are set to continue through the weekend.
Britain, already deep in its longest cold spell in nearly 30 years, registered its chilliest night yet this season: minus 22.3 degrees Celsius in the Scottish Highlands village of Altnaharra.
British authorities have used up so much grit on icy roads that they started to run out yesterday, leaving thousands of secondary roads and sidewalks untreated and turning them into sheets of black ice that stretched for blocks.
Gatwick Airport officials said 18,000 tons of snow had been removed from runways in recent days. A dozen flights were canceled out of Marseille-Provence airport in southern France.
For desperate parents from Britain to Berlin, the biggest challenge hasn't been snow-choked roads but finding a sled.
Manufacturers of all types of snow-slipping vehicles, from traditional wooden-runner sleds to plastic bobsleds with breaks are thrilled at the boom after years of fearing they had become victims of global warming.
"There hasn't been a run on sleds like this one since at least 25 years," said Michael Ress, owner of Ress Kutschen sled factory in Schwebheim, Germany.
Ress' eight employees are currently working at maximum capacity, putting together 100 beech-wood sleds per day. The entire forthcoming production of this season's 3,000 sleds, which go for 35 euros (US$50), has already been sold in advance.
"We're running out of supplies," said Ress, adding that he was forced to order certain metal parts from Asia because his usual German suppliers were out of stock.
In London, the harsh weather dominated yesterday's Cabinet meeting, and commuters struggled to get to many Underground stations because of the ice buildup.
British union officials pleaded with employers to offer hot drinks to people working outside. A charity call center set up to help the elderly cope with the snow and ice was shut down because workers could not get to the office.
In France, snow piled up from Normandy to Marseille on the Mediterranean shore. Some 30 centimeters of snow fell on Arles and Avignon in southern France, according to the regional traffic center, and snow piled more than a meter high.
Much of Spain was also shivering. A nature park in the normally temperate Murcia region in the southeast turned on heaters at a pen housing three giraffes more used to Savannah-like climes.
A European cold snap -- awfully cold in some places -- saw snow clog roads and airports yesterday, knock out electricity and induce hoorays from schoolchildren kept home from school. The low temperatures, prompted by an Arctic weather system, are set to continue through the weekend.
Britain, already deep in its longest cold spell in nearly 30 years, registered its chilliest night yet this season: minus 22.3 degrees Celsius in the Scottish Highlands village of Altnaharra.
British authorities have used up so much grit on icy roads that they started to run out yesterday, leaving thousands of secondary roads and sidewalks untreated and turning them into sheets of black ice that stretched for blocks.
Gatwick Airport officials said 18,000 tons of snow had been removed from runways in recent days. A dozen flights were canceled out of Marseille-Provence airport in southern France.
For desperate parents from Britain to Berlin, the biggest challenge hasn't been snow-choked roads but finding a sled.
Manufacturers of all types of snow-slipping vehicles, from traditional wooden-runner sleds to plastic bobsleds with breaks are thrilled at the boom after years of fearing they had become victims of global warming.
"There hasn't been a run on sleds like this one since at least 25 years," said Michael Ress, owner of Ress Kutschen sled factory in Schwebheim, Germany.
Ress' eight employees are currently working at maximum capacity, putting together 100 beech-wood sleds per day. The entire forthcoming production of this season's 3,000 sleds, which go for 35 euros (US$50), has already been sold in advance.
"We're running out of supplies," said Ress, adding that he was forced to order certain metal parts from Asia because his usual German suppliers were out of stock.
In London, the harsh weather dominated yesterday's Cabinet meeting, and commuters struggled to get to many Underground stations because of the ice buildup.
British union officials pleaded with employers to offer hot drinks to people working outside. A charity call center set up to help the elderly cope with the snow and ice was shut down because workers could not get to the office.
In France, snow piled up from Normandy to Marseille on the Mediterranean shore. Some 30 centimeters of snow fell on Arles and Avignon in southern France, according to the regional traffic center, and snow piled more than a meter high.
Much of Spain was also shivering. A nature park in the normally temperate Murcia region in the southeast turned on heaters at a pen housing three giraffes more used to Savannah-like climes.
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