Icy blast from Siberia sweeps across Europe
PARIS: A wintry blast of freezing temperatures swept across Europe on Sunday (Monday in Manila), with a biting wind from Siberia claiming four lives and endangering the continent’s homeless— with the worst yet to come.
The “Beast from the East,” as the phenomenon has been dubbed by the British media, is expected to bring chilling winds from Russia over the next week that will make it feel even colder than thermometers indicate.
The cold snap has already been linked to several deaths, as well as postponing an Italian football
In France, where temperatures were forecast to drop to minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) and feel as low as minus 18 C over the coming days, fears ran high for people living on the streets.
A homeless man in the city of Valence in the country’s southeast was found dead on Sunday, and another man was found dead in his cabin in the suburbs of Paris on Friday.
France has opened up extra emergency shelters for the homeless, and in Calais in northern France, about 200 migrants were spared the cold on Saturday night.
Over a year after the French government razed the sprawling Jungle camp, there are still hundreds of migrants around the port of Calais, hoping to stow away on trucks to Britain.
“I’m lucky to be in here where it’s warm, outside it’s impossible because of the cold,” 20-year-old
‘Siberian express’
Britain’s weather service, the Met - gland would have 10 centimeters ( four inches) of snow over the next three days, amid temperatures that could 15 Celsius.
It also warned of widespread travel disruption, saying: “Snow showers, already affecting eastern parts of England early on Monday, are expected to become more persistent and more widespread through Monday afternoon and evening.”
The front page of the newspaper on Friday warned: “Wrap up warm! Freezing cold ‘Siberian Express’ is roaring towards Britain.”
Russia itself was not spared, with feel as cold as minus its meteorological service warning of “abnormally cold” temperatures until Wednesday and temperatures in the Moscow region expected to fall to minus 24 Celsius on Sunday night, and minus 35 Celsius in the center of the country.
Two people died of the cold in Poland on Friday night, bringing the winter’s toll to 46 since November, according to the center for national security.
Frigid temperatures are also forecast throughout Germany, with a low of minus 22 Celsius in some Alpine valleys in the southern state of Bavaria on Monday.
Football game postponed
Heavy snow in the north Italian city of Turin caused a Serie A football game between Juventus and Atalanta to be postponed on Sunday.
In Austria, temperatures drop below minus 20 C on Sunday night.
“It will feel like minus 30,” Stefan Kiesenhofer of the Austrian meteorological service ZAMG told the Oesterreich newspaper.
A cold snap like this “comes every seven to 10 years,” he said.
Hungary has been on alert since Saturday, while heavy snow closed some schools in Croatia on Saturday.
Schools were also closed in Romania’s capital Bucharest, as well as three areas in the country’s south, with more snowfall expected amid lows of minus 15 C to minus 20 C.
Pregnant women and dialysis patients in several parts of the country were encouraged to go to hospital to avoid being stranded at home in case of an emergency.
Spain’s weather agency warned Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands.