Europe copes with cold and snow

2009-01-07 18:04

Milan - Subfreezing temperatures and exceptional snowfall caused travel woes around Europe on Wednesday, and in Rome's zoo it was so cold the chimpanzees got cookies for extra calories to keep them warm.

Milan's Malpensa and Linate airports briefly closed, then struggled to overcome a morning of delays and cancellations when the facilities reopened in the early afternoon as the city - Italy's financial capital - dug out from 30cm of snow.

The airport authority said flight crews and other workers had been unable to reach the airports.

Snow that blanketed much of northwestern Italy caused train delays of up to two hours as the Italian railway had to slow track speeds. Schools closed in many cities.

Snow in Cote d'Azur

A rare snowfall in France's normally sunny Cote d'Azur sent the national railway into crisis mode, halting trains in Provence as well as the Alps.

Authorities stopped all buses in the port city of Marseille and closed surrounding highways, urging drivers to stay home. Several minor car accidents caused long traffic jams.

The operator of France's electricity grid and a unit of Electricite de France SA, called on customers in southern and western France to limit power consumption during peak evening hours amid expected record demand.

In Rome, keepers at the capital's zoo fed primates a special breakfast of warm barley porridge, croissants and cookies to make sure they had enough calories to keep up their body temperatures, the zoo said in a statement.

The chimpanzees and orangutans also have been treated to modern floorboard heating and raised beds of hay and wood chips "to guarantee the perfect thermal insulation", the zoo said in a statement.

-°28 C

Germany had its coldest night of the winter, with a temperature of minus -°28 C measured at one weather station in eastern Germany.

In central Germany, frozen switches caused some train delays and cancellations.

In the Netherlands, authorities at Rotterdam's port sent out an ice-breaking ship on Wednesday morning to ensure passage for barges using a vital artery to ply the country's inland waterways.

It was the first time since 1996 that the port has used an icebreaker.

But the freezing temperatures warmed the hearts of Dutch skaters, who stormed the frozen canals.

Serious speedskaters were hoping the cold spell would continue long enough for the country to stage its 11 cities tour, a 200km race over frozen canals and rivers in the country's northern province of Friesland.

The race was last run in early 1997 and has only been staged 15 times since the first official event in 1909.

Despite the freeze, the group that organises the race played down hopes of a 2009 race, saying in a statement on its website that two more weeks of severe, around-the-clock frost and 15cm of ice were needed.

"Sadly, so far it doesn't look like that is going to happen."

- AP