European cold spell kills hundreds

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

The cold weather across Europe has already claimed around 400 lives, and cold temperatures there could last another week, according to forecasters.

The weather in Europe has been caused by the "negative Arctic oscillation," whereby the warmer weather of Europe and the colder weather of the Arctic are switched, said Omar Baddour of the UN's World Meteorological Organization.

Ukraine has reported the highest number of deaths now at 135. Many among the high death toll across the region were homeless people.

Some villages in Bosnia are receiving food and medical deliveries by helicopter as the cold, ice and snow has blocked their supply routes.

The temperatures across Eastern Europe fell well below freezing and in some places into dangerous levels below -32 degrees Celsius, or roughly -25 Fahrenheit, but 25 countries have issued severe weather warnings. Poland saw temperatures as low as -35 Celsius, which is -31 Fahrenheit.

So far casualties have been reported in the Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Italy, Germany, France, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, and Greece.

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Sources

"Winter Tightens Icy Grip Across Europe" — Voice of America, February 8, 2012

"Deadly Cold Snap: European Deep Freeze Refuses to Relent" — Spiegel Online, February 7, 2012

"Europe’s deadly cold snap should ease from next week, UN agency says" — UN News Service, February 7, 2012

AFP. "Deadly cold snap 'to get worse'" — The Daily Telegraph (Australia), February 4, 2012

"Europe’s homeless dying in arctic conditions" — Euronews, February 3, 2012

"Cold weather death toll passes 100 in Ukraine" — BBC News Online, February 3, 2012

Laura Smith-Spark. "Europe's cold snap claims more lives" — CNN, February 3, 2012

"Cold snap takes heavy toll in Eastern Europe" — Deutsche Welle, February 3, 2012

"Homeless facing cold all over Europe" — Euronews, February 2, 2012

External links

For the current warnings across Europe see: Meteoalarm

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