WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Extreme cold has hit large parts of Europe, with freezing temperatures cracking Poland’s railways, snow covering the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul and rising smog as more coal burns to generate heat.
In Switzerland, a skier who was buried by an avalanche over the weekend died in a hospital due to his injuries, authorities said on Monday.
The country issued avalanche warnings a few days earlier, after heavy snowfall. Officials said the skier and his two companions were buried by an avalanche while skiing on the marked trails in the Gstaad area on Sunday. A man escaped the snow and then pulled out one of the others, but the third was found only by rescue crews, who arrived later.
Temperatures dropped to minus 28 degrees Celsius (minus 18 Fahrenheit) in some Polish areas overnight, the coldest night in 11 years. Many trains were delayed on Monday after lines at two railway stations in Warsaw broke down.
Hand in hand with the cold came an increase in smog in Warsaw and other parts of Poland, as the cold caused an increase in coal burned for heat. Air pollution levels were so high in Warsaw that city officials urged people to stay indoors.
Just across the southwestern border of Poland, the Czech Republic experienced the coldest night of the year, with temperatures dropping below minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit) in many places.
The lowest temperature – minus 27 degrees Celsius (minus 16 Fahrenheit) – was recorded on Monday in Orlicke Zahori, a mountain village 160 kilometers east of Prague, near the Polish border, according to the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute.
Freezing weather was expected to be replaced by heavy snowfall in the northeast of the Czech Republic, the institute said.
Winter weather and freezing temperatures have been reported throughout the Balkans, causing problems with Serbia’s food sources and bringing some snow even to the Croatian islands in the Adriatic.
In eastern Albania, temperatures dropped to minus 13 degrees Celsius (9 Fahrenheit) in Peshkopi, 110 kilometers (70 miles) east of the capital Tirana. Deep freezing caused the water pipes to freeze and created dangerous driving conditions. Frozen roads in the town of Pogradec prevented firefighters from arriving in time for a home fire in which a man died early Monday.
In Istanbul, traffic was stopped by the layer of snow that covered the city, with cars blocked or slipping on the roads.
In Germany, fresh snow, slippery roads and fallen trees led to several car accidents on Sunday and overnight, the dpa news agency reported. A driver died in southwestern Germany after his car pulled over a mound of snow.
The northern region also recorded snow and ice temperatures, with the coldest temperatures predictably in the Arctic. The Norwegian Meteorological Institute posted a message in English on Monday, saying, “We encourage all knitting lovers to send woolen clothes to their northern friends.”
In Denmark, police found 17 people with ice bathing naked on Sunday in a lake near Roskilde, 40 kilometers west of Copenhagen. All members of the group, aged between 26 and 51, were charged with violating the pandemic restrictions, limiting the gatherings to five people. Police said they would all receive a fine of $ 2,500 ($ 405) for first-time offenders.
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PA writers from all over Europe contributed.