2024-01-18 01:22:52
The harsh winter weather in Northern Europe led to the cancellation of hundreds of flights on Wednesday at Frankfurt Airport, the busiest airport in Germany, while heavy snow in Scandinavian countries disrupted air traffic, especially in Oslo, for several hours.
A Frankfurt Airport spokesman said that 570 out of 1,047 scheduled flights had been cancelled, while Germany’s commercial capital was preparing for severe weather conditions.
By the early hours of the followingnoon, all departing flights had been canceled from the schedule, following the start of icy rain, although plane landings were still possible, according to a spokesman, while it was not immediately clear how long the flights would continue to be suspended.
By Wednesday evening, some flights had resumed, but the airport warned of continued disruption to airport traffic on Thursday.
Munich Airport also warned of flight disruptions due to bad weather conditions, as 250 out of 650 scheduled flights were cancelled, according to an airport spokeswoman.
The German national airline, Lufthansa, advised passengers to ensure that their flights are still scheduled before setting off for airports.
Heavy snow
In northern France, heavy rain and heavy snow seriously disrupted traffic, putting regarding 30 regions on “orange alert,” that is, one level below the maximum alert level.
In Norway, Oslo Airport was closed for approximately 3 hours on Wednesday followingnoon, while most bus flights in the Norwegian capital were cancelled. The railway operator Vy announced the disruption of traffic in a large part of the east of the country.
In neighboring Sweden, heavy snow led to many traffic accidents in the west and south of the country, causing congestion on a number of main roads.
The police said, in a statement, “The surface of the roads is very slippery, and the police urge citizens not to go out unless absolutely necessary.”
The National Meteorological Agency in Sweden issued a warning to the capital, Stockholm, of “strong winds accompanied by snow.”
Snow 40 centimeters thick
Cold waves are becoming rarer in Europe and on a global scale due to the greenhouse effect, which reduces their likelihood, duration and severity, according to climate scientists.
The “Gertrude” depression, which will hit southwest and central Germany, is expected to be accompanied by snow that may reach a thickness of 40 centimeters, ice that may form on roads and “damage to infrastructure,” according to the German Meteorological Service.
German police spoke of “a large number of accidents on the roads near Baden-Baden (southwest),” while the national railway company “Deutsche Bahn” said that it was slowing down the movement of its high-speed trains from 320 to 200 kilometers per hour due to the conditions.
It also warned of delays and cancellations in its regional and long-distance network, especially between the cities of Cologne and Frankfurt in the west of the country.
The emergency services in this regional state said that they were preparing for a wave of road accidents, and had increased the number of their employees and the number of vehicles. It called on motorists not to use the roads except “extremely necessary.”
In large parts of Bavaria, Germany’s largest state, schools were closed in anticipation of dangerous winter conditions.
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