A wave of Arctic air blanketed Europe with frigid weather and intense snowfall, snarling travel and triggering power outages in some areas.
Northerly winds driven by high pressure systems in the Atlantic and Arctic caused temperatures to plummet January 5 and early January 6 in northern and central Europe.
Overnight lows in Marham in southeastern England plunged to -12.5C (9.5F), according to the U.K. Met Office. Temperatures in Mouthe in eastern France and Oberstdorf in the Bavarian Alps dipped to -22C, according to government forecasters.
The cold snap raised heating needs across the continent, forcing France to ramp up gas generators to meet electricity demand that hit a five-year high on January 5.
Snowfall closed runways and limited airport operations on January 5 and 6, leading to hundreds of flight cancellations and delays and widespread disruptions to rail and bus service in the Netherlands and France.
Many flights were canceled at Nantes airport in Brittany, and airports in Paris were also reporting cancellations and delays. Flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport remained severely limited on January 6, according to officials.
The cold spell is France’s most severe since 2012, meteorologists with Meteo France said. It maintained orange weather alerts for snow and ice across 26 departments in the northwest on January 6, while snowfall reached 30 centimeters (11.8 inches) in the Charente-Maritime department on the Atlantic coast.
Another wave of snow is expected in the country on January 7. So far, two people have died and two others were hurt in road accidents due to icy roads in the Paris region, authorities told AFP. Snow and ice triggered power blackouts affecting roughly 7,500 households in Loire-Atlantique and Vendée, according to France Info.
School transportation was suspended January 6 in parts of the country’s northwest. Authorities also ordered lower speed limits and banned traffic for heavy cargo vehicles in the regions under orange weather alerts. Rail service was also severely limited across the Paris metro, Ici radio reported.
Train services also remained severely disrupted across the Netherlands, including on international routes. In Berlin, around 27,000 homes are still without power for a fourth day after an arson attack produced a major blackout on January 3, with the frozen ground making it more difficult to repair the cables.
