The Italy has also been surprised by the snow Friday

The "big freeze" hits Britain

The United Kingdom is about recording the coldest December since 1910, said the Met Office weather services. On the night of Saturday to Sunday, the thermometer fell to-19,5 C in the Midlands. This "big freeze", as the British, comes at the worst time: this is the most loaded weekend of the year presentation for air transport, with 600,000 passengers at Heathrow and Gatwick childcare. Closed a good part of Saturday to be cleared, the two airports have reopened yesterday, but few were flights taking off. The situation is such that the Secretary of State for transport, Philip Hammond, said he asked the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government to determine if the British Isles were undergoing a structural change in their climate model, in conjunction with changes in global!

In Germany, no region escaped the snow

Almost all of the German territory is snowy, announced the DWD weather service. Was yesterday morning 12 cm of snow in Hamburg, 17 cm at Munich, Berlin, 24 cm in Frankfurt 21 cm. It is at the airport in Frankfurt, German and European air hub that chaos was the most obvious. Hundreds of flights had to be cancelled yesterday and COTS installed in airport terminals. Lufthansa recommends that customers prefer the train for the domestic routes. Las, travellers must still once expect serious difficulties. Delays and failures are very numerous. In addition to the trains of Deutsche Bahn Park is notoriously inadequate, known since last winter that some facilities are vulnerable to the very fine snow, causing short circuits.

On the roads, the situation is not better: many accidents, especially of heavy weight, regularly block highways. The salt supply is tight. Some isolated regions are beginning to run out of gasoline. Resigned, the Germans took out their skis and make excursions in fairy tale forest.

Brussels Airport has turned into dormitory

The Belgium beat this weekend an old record of fifty years: the number of days of snowfall on the two months of the year reached 18 this Sunday, against 16 in 1945! At Brussels Airport, 1 400 passengers remained blocked Sunday evening. Between 1,000 and 2,000 other passengers before travelling to London but diverted to the Belgium, were already remained blocked on the night of Saturday to Sunday. Buses were paralyzed in the South of the country and in Brussels. As in France, the rainfall led to a ban on the circulation of heavy goods vehicles in the whole of Wallonia. The Walloon Minister of public works has promised that he would hold this week a meeting to take stock of this operation with all stakeholders.

In Italy, the chaos of the Tuscan highways

The Duomo of Milan to the slopes of Mount Vesuvius from the beaches of Sardinia. The Italy has also been surprised by the snow, Friday. Several airports have had to be closed, but it is on the roads of Tuscany that the situation has proved the most critical. The Florence-Arezzo motorway was blocked for hours, forcing thousands of people to spend the night in their vehicle, while on the rail network, the trains were to the judgment.

A chaos that spread Saturday night to access roads to Siena, because the ice. The controversy is quickly mounted, head of civil protection, Franco Gabrielli, alleging that the Italians to be launched on the roads without taking into account weather alerts. At the time, the President of the region, Enrico Rossi, announced a collective citizen action before the courts, against the leadership of the Directorate of roads (Anas), the highway concessionaire, Autostrade, and railways (FS). They are called this afternoon, in the Office of the Minister of transport, Altero Matteoli.