WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Extreme cold has hit much of Europe, with freezing temperatures breaking the railroad tracks in Poland, snow covering Istanbul’s Turkish metropolis and increasing pollution as more coal is burned to generate heat.
In Switzerland, a skier who was buried in an avalanche over the weekend died in a hospital due to his injuries, officials said on Monday.
The country had issued avalanche warnings several days earlier, after a heavy snowfall. Officials said the skier and his two companions were buried in an avalanche while skiing on marked trails in the Gstaad area on Sunday. One man got rid of the snow and released one of the others, but the third man was only found by rescue workers, who arrived later.
Temperatures dropped to minus 28 degrees Celsius (minus 18 Fahrenheit) in some Polish areas during the night, the coldest night in 11 years. Many trains were delayed on Monday after the tracks at Warsaw’s two railway stations broke.
Along with the cold came an increase in pollution in Warsaw and other parts of Poland, as the cold increased the burning of coal for heating. Air pollution levels were so high in Warsaw that city officials asked people to stay home.
Across the southwestern border of Poland, the Czech Republic experienced the coldest night this 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 (100 miles) east of Prague near the Polish border, according to the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute .
The icy weather must be replaced by heavy snowfall in the north-east of the Czech Republic, the institute said.
Wintry weather and freezing temperatures have been reported across the Balkans, which has created problems with Serbia’s energy supply and has brought some snow even to Croatia’s Adriatic islands.
In eastern Albania, temperatures have dropped below 13 degrees Celsius (9 Fahrenheit) in Peshkopi, 110 kilometers (70 miles) east of the capital, Tirana. The deep freeze caused the water pipes to freeze and created dangerous driving conditions. Icy roads in the city of Pogradec prevented firefighters from arriving in time for a house fire in which a man died on Monday morning.
In Istanbul, traffic was interrupted by the layer of snow that covered the city, with cars stopped or skidding on the roads.
In Germany, fresh snow, slippery roads and fallen trees caused several car accidents on Sunday and overnight, the dpa news agency reported. A driver died in southwest Germany after his car passed over a snowdrift.
The Nordic region also saw snow and sub-zero temperatures, with the coldest temperatures predictably recorded in the Arctic. Norway’s meteorological institute tweeted an ironic message on Monday, saying: “We encourage all knitting lovers to send woolen clothes to their friends in the north.”
In Denmark, police found 17 naked people taking an ice bath on Sunday in a lake near Roskilde, 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Copenhagen. Everyone in the group, aged 26 to 51, was preliminarily accused of violating the pandemic restrictions that limited meetings to five people. Police said they would all receive a fine of SEK 2,500 (US $ 405) for primary defendants.
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AP writers from across Europe contributed.