Winter ain't over yet... by Kirsty McCabe
Parts of the UK again experienced wintry weather on Friday with southeast England, East Anglia and the Home Counties bearing the brunt, with six inches of snow falling in Kent. The snow and ice disrupted rush-hour traffic during the morning, bringing traffic to a halt on the M2 out of London. Londoners themselves were greeted by the rare sight of snow falling on Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.
Over on the continent travel chaos was rife, with heavy snowfall and near-record low temperatures widely reported. A rare snowstorm blanketed the Netherlands, disrupting flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport. The heaviest snowfalls were in the northwestern province of Friesland, where (50 cm) 20 inches came down in 24 hours, the highest level in March for 20 to 25 years.
Spain declared a state of alert due to the snow, with Madrid recording its heaviest snowfall in 15 years. Almost all of Germany was covered by snow, and heavy snowfall in northern and central Greece cut off dozens of mountain villages, blocked roads and closed some schools. Italy too experienced extensive snow with Rome suffering its coldest March for 18 years.
The snow is good news for some. After two month’s of heavy snowfall the skiing conditions are near-perfect in the Austrian Alps with sunny skies and sub-zero temperatures. But even here there is a downside – a large number of avalanches.
Unusually heavy snowfalls are also making the headlines in Japan, where nearly an inch of snow accumulated in downtown Tokyo on Friday. It is the first time since 1998 that more than a centimetre of snow has covered the Japanese capital. The wintry weather had an adverse affect on flights, road and rail traffic across Northern Japan. Along with the heavy snow, temperatures plummeted and the northern prefecture of Aomori recorded just -7.5 C (18 F). The cold front that brought the snow is now moving northeast towards the Pacific so things will improve across the islands over the weekend.
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