VARSAW, Poland (AP) – Extreme cold has hit large parts of Europe, with icy temperatures breaking railways in Poland, snow covering Istanbul’s Turkish metropolis and a blaze of burning smoke more coal to generate heat.
In Switzerland, a skier who had been buried by an avalanche over the weekend died at a hospital from his injuries, authorities said on Monday.
The country had issued avalanche warnings several days earlier after heavy snowfall. Officials said the skier and his two companions were buried by an avalanche while skiing on marked trails in the Gstaad area on Sunday. One man freed himself from the snow and then pulled out one of the others, but the third could only be found by rescue teams, 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 of two Warsaw railway stations were broken.
The hand of the cold caused an increase in smog in Warsaw and other parts of Poland, as the cold caused an increase in the burning of coal by heat. Air pollution levels were so high in Warsaw that city officials urged people to stay indoors.
Just across the southwestern border of Poland, the Czech Republic experienced the coldest night of the year, with temperatures dropping below 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit) in many places.
The lowest temperature (minus 27 degrees Celsius) was recorded on Monday in Orlicke Zahori, a mountain village 160 kilometers east of Prague, near the Polish border, according to the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute.
The icy climate was expected to be replaced by heavy snowfall in the northeast of the Czech Republic, the institute said.
Winter weather and icy temperatures were reported in all the Balkans, which has created problems with electricity supplies in Serbia and has brought some snow even to the islands of the Croatian Adriatic Sea.
In eastern Albania, temperatures dropped to less than 13 degrees Celsius (9 Fahrenheit) in Peshkopi, 110 kilometers (70 miles) east of the capital, Tirana. Deep freezing caused the water pipes to freeze and created dangerous driving conditions. The icy roads of the city of Pogradec prevented firefighters from arriving in time for a home fire in which a man died early Monday.
In Istanbul, the layer of snow covering the city stopped traffic, with cars stopped or skating on the roads.
In Germany, fresh snow, slippery roads and fallen trees caused several traffic accidents on Sunday and overnight, the dpa news agency reported. A driver died in southwest Germany after his car shot over a mound of snow.
Snow and thawing temperatures were also recorded in the Nordic region, with the coldest temperatures predictable recorded in the Arctic. Norway’s meteorological institute tweeted Monday with a message “we encourage all fabric lovers to send woolen clothes to their northern friends.”
In Denmark, police on Sunday found 17 people bathing naked in ice on a lake near Roskilde, 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Copenhagen. All members of the group, aged 26 to 51, were preliminarily accused of violating pandemic restrictions that limited meetings to five people. Police said they will receive a fine, which is 2,500 crowns ($ 405) for first-time offenders.
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AP writers from all over Europe contributed.