An airplane slid off an icy runway and powerful winds and heavy snow forced hundreds of flight cancellations across Europe on Saturday as blasts of freezing cold buffeted the region.
An Air Berlin plane slid off the runway in Nuremberg, Germany, and was stuck in the snow late on Friday. Nobody was injured, but the airport was closed for more than two hours.
More than 300 car accidents were reported on icy streets in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, with more than 40 people injured. The western state of North Rhine-Westphalia reported 108 accidents.
PHOTO: REUTERS
At the German-French border near Freiburg, hundreds of trucks were stuck for hours when French authorities closed the highway because of heavy snow. The Red Cross handed out blankets and hot soup to the drivers.
By early afternoon, 226 domestic and international flights had been canceled at Frankfurt airport as a low pressure system from the Mediterranean brought gusty winds and several centimeters of snow. Crews struggled to clear the runways and the few planes that managed to take off had to be de-iced first, Frankfurt airport duty manager Heinz Fass said.
In the UK, cold winds swept in from the north, sending temperatures tumbling to minus 14ºC in parts of Scotland and northern England. The country is in the midst of its longest cold snap in three decades and transport has been disrupted in many areas.
The arctic weather — unusual by the UK’s temperate standards — led to record demand for gas. In a Web cast on Saturday, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown reassured Britons that gas supplies were not running out, even though almost 100 businesses had been asked to stop using gas to conserve supplies. Supplies of salt and sand for gritting dangerously icy roads were also running low.
Heavy snow forced the cancellation of all flights at Dublin Airport in Ireland. Traffic at London’s Heathrow Airport, Europe’s busiest, was also affected, with British Airways alone canceling about 50 flights.
Schoenefeld and Tegel, the main airports in Berlin, as well as Munich airport, also reported cancellations.
In France, dozens of flights were canceled in Toulouse, Lyon and Brest. Heavy snow snapped power lines in the southeast, near the Mediterranean, leaving at least 7,500 homes without power. And at least 12 French Cup soccer matches had to be rescheduled because of the cold, the French football federation said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
STORM’S PATH: Kong-Rey could be the first typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan in November since Gilda in 1967. Taitung-Green Island ferry services have been halted Tropical Storm Kong-rey is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon early today and could make landfall in Taitung County between late Thursday and early Friday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, Kong-Rey was 1,030km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the nation’s southernmost point, and was moving west at 7kph. The tropical storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126 kph, CWA data showed. After landing in Taitung, the eye of the storm is forecast to move into the Taiwan Strait through central Taiwan on Friday morning, the agency said. With the storm moving
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
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