'Europe Gripped by Extreme Cold: Flight Cancellations and Casualties Mount'

Severe Cold Wave Causes Widespread Damage Across Europe
Reported by Associated Press and The Guardian

A sign blocking access to the A93 road in Scotland, UK, was installed on the 11th (local time). Photo by Reuters Yonhap News

Severe cold waves are causing widespread damage across Europe, including Finland. Transportation has been severely disrupted, with flight cancellations, suspension of ferry and train services, and even casualties suspected to have been caused directly by avalanches.

According to the Associated Press and The Guardian on the 11th (local time), all flights departing from Kittila Airport in the Lapland region of northern Finland were canceled due to difficulties in de-icing aircraft caused by the extreme cold. As a result, thousands of tourists visiting for skiing and aurora viewing were stranded.

Flight cancellations are expected to continue through the following day, the 12th. The Finnish Meteorological Institute forecast that temperatures in the region would drop to minus 40 degrees Celsius on the 12th.

In Germany, train and ferry services were also widely suspended. On the 9th, heavy snowfall forced state-owned rail operator Deutsche Bahn to halt all train operations in the northern region. Bus services were suspended in various areas, and in Bavaria, a fatal accident occurred when a car skidded on icy roads. In Lower Saxony, most North Sea coastal ferry services were suspended due to strong winds.

Additionally, German authorities announced that, with icy conditions forecast for all roads in North Rhine-Westphalia, all schools in the state would be closed on the 12th and classes would move online. In northern Scotland, more than 250 schools were closed on the 9th due to heavy snowfall.

In Estonia and Lithuania, authorities asked drivers to postpone unnecessary travel as blizzards were expected, while in Latvia, a heavy snowfall warning was issued for the western region.

In France and the United Kingdom, a winter storm accompanied by strong winds, snow, and rain on the 9th caused power outages for thousands of households. The Normandy region of France was particularly hard-hit, with about 320,000 households affected as of noon on the 9th. In the UK, power company National Grid reported that 57,000 households in the southwest lost electricity.

In the French Alps, a man died in an avalanche while skiing. La Plagne ski resort, located in the Savoie region of the Alps, reported that a British man in his 50s died in an avalanche while skiing on the 11th. According to the resort, the man was found under a 2.5-meter-high pile of snow and had been skiing off the designated course at the time of the avalanche.