Snow, ice and strong winds complicated traffic in many European countries for the third day in a row on Wednesday. The airports in Paris and Amsterdam were the most affected. Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam, one of the largest in Europe, announced the cancellation of at least 700 flights on Wednesday due to snow and wind. More than 1,000 passengers were forced to spend the night in its premises, reports TASR, citing AFP and ORF television.
Around 100 flights were canceled at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, another 40 connections did not take off from Orly airport, French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said.
The snowfall in the Netherlands also partially paralyzed rail transport. Railway company NS advised passengers to travel only in essential cases. Chaos also reigned on the roads – in the morning traffic jams with a total length of more than 700 kilometers were recorded throughout the country.
Five people died in the accidents
The situation was similar in France. In recent days, five people have lost their lives there in weather-related traffic accidents. In the village of Mouthe in eastern France, they measured a minimum of minus 22 degrees Celsius.
On Wednesday, the second highest level of alert was in effect in 38 of France’s 101 departments. According to meteorologists, three to seven centimeters of snow fell in the north and west of the country, and up to 15 centimeters in the Ardennes region in northern France. On Tuesday, up to 30 centimeters of snow fell in some places in the Charente-Maritime department, which is unusually high for this region in the west of the country.
There were no buses running in Paris in the morning, the traffic of trams, the metro and the RER suburban expressway was disrupted. In several areas, school buses were also canceled and a ban on the driving of trucks was introduced in the Paris agglomeration, in western and southwestern France. During rush hour, traffic jams across the country reached a length of 1,650 kilometers, Le Parisien newspaper reported.
Air and rail transport also had problems in Belgium. According to Brussels Airport, 40 flights were canceled at the international airport in Brussels (Zaventem) on Wednesday. All trains bound for the Netherlands ran only up to the state border.
Dozens of passengers were stranded
Snow also fell in the north and northeast of Britain. In Scotland, hundreds of schools remained closed for the third day in a row. Several Eurostar trains between the London station St. Pancras and Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Paris.
In Sweden, heavy snowfall caused traffic problems, especially in the second largest city, Gothenburg, where trams were not running.
Heavy snow and wind disrupted the transport connection between the interior of Croatia and the coast of Dalmatia. Dozens of passengers were stuck on the express train from Zagreb to Split on Wednesday night because the locomotive could not continue its journey from the Knin station. The highway connecting the capital Zagreb with Split was closed.
The German Meteorological Service (DWD) said on Wednesday that Elli will bring more snow to central Europe on Friday night. In some regions, up to 20 centimeters of fresh snow may fall.
