Winter finally arrives in Europe by Sean Batty
After a very mild and relatively snow-less start to the winter for many areas of Europe, more noticeably at the Alpine ski resorts cold weather and blizzards have begun to descend on the continent.
We reported yesterday that the Galacia area of northwest Spain was slammed on Monday by its first winter storm blanketing the region with several inches of snow and bringing chaos to travel.
The cold weather has spread to many other areas, including Austria, which last night experienced heavy snowfall, especially in the south of the country. Nearly 300 lorries were stuck on the roads overnight, while tailbacks of over 5 miles developed in the Drau Valley, near the border with Italy.
There are reports that up to a metre of snow fell overnight in the southern Province of Austria, which also left many thousands without power.
Heavy snow also fell overnight in neighbouring Czech Republic, where snow closed the main highway between Prague and the eastern city of Brno. Prague Airport has halted all flights until at least Wednesday afternoon, when it will review the situation. More heavy snow is however forecast for the city today.
The Alps have been hit badly this winter by the lack of snow, giving a hard blow to the tourist economies, which rely on the winter snow for flocking tourists.
Snow has also come to the rescue here with blizzards buffeting the mountains in the last few days.
The resort of Grand Saint Bernard in Switzerland, last night reported a fall of 42cm (nearly half a metre) in the space of 12 hours. While many resorts in Italy, Switzerland and France are still behind average in their amounts of snow, the recent blizzards are bound to help matters.
The UK has also been feeling an icy blast in the last few days with the ski centres in Scotland doing very well now. Snow here is well above average in the resorts, with the Cairngorms reporting 50cm on their upper slopes and 15cm on the lower.
The snow in the UK has not just been reserved for the ski centres but also the southeast of England. People awoke in London to Dickensian scenes as snow fluttered down on the rooftops and blanketed the ground.
As of Wednesday morning 16 flights were cancelled in the London area, 13 of them from Heathrow due to problems with de-icing.
The deepest snow in southern England was reported at Benson in Oxfordshire, where there was between 4-5cms.
Heavy snow is forecast for the southeast later today and tonight, with Kent, Sussex and Surrey likely to be worst hit.
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