CHERBOURG, FRANCE: Fierce winds battered France and Britain on Friday as storms barrelled through northern Europe, snarling train travel, shutting schools and cutting power to hundreds of thousands of homes in plunging winter temperatures.
Forecasters from Britain to Germany urged people to stay inside as they issued weather warnings, including the rare, highest-level red wind alert for the British Isles of Scilly and Cornwall in southwestern England.
In France, Storm Goretti cut power to some 380,000 homes, most of them in the northern Normandy region, the Enedis power provider said, while Britain’s National Grid said 42,000 homes lost electricity in southwest England and thousands more elsewhere.
Overnight, gusts of up to 216 kilometres per hour were registered in France’s northwestern Manche region, authorities said.
The winds felled trees in several regions, with at least one crashing on residential buildings in France’s Seine-Maritime region, without injuries, authorities said.
Gusts of up to 160 kph lashed England and Wales with the Met Office forecasting agency warning “very large waves will bring dangerous conditions to coastal areas”.
It also issued an amber snow warning in Wales, central England and parts of northern England, predicting snow of up to 30 centimetres in some areas.
The UK’s National Rail has said train services will be affected over the next two days and called on people to avoid travel unless necessary.
At least eight people have died in weather-related accidents this week across Europe, the latest being a man whose body was pulled from floodwater in the Albanian city of Durres on Thursday following days of heavy snow and torrential rain across the Balkans.
Schools remained shut in parts of northern France, where weather alerts have been issued in 30 other regions.
“Take shelter and do not use your vehicle”, the Manche police warned on X on Thursday, urging residents to prepare emergency supplies.
Giant waves crashed over harbour walls across France’s far northwest overnight and as the storm moved eastwards it brought flooding and forced the closure of roads and ports including Dieppe.
In Scotland, hundreds of schools remained shut for the fifth day, with many pupils not yet returning to the classroom after their Christmas holidays.
Northern Germany was facing severe disruption from heavy snow and high winds brought by another storm called Elli, with schools ordered closed in the cities of Hamburg and Bremen and long-distance rail services cancelled across the north.
Up to 15 centimetres of snow could fall in the north and there was a risk of icy conditions in the south, according to the German Weather Service (DWD).
The DWD said the storm was expected to last until Saturday, with snowfall stopping on Monday.
DWD meteorologist Andreas Walter said the storm was exceptional in the context of the last few years of milder winters, which were a “consequence of climate change”.
Transport in Russia was also hit by wintry weather, with some 300 flights in the Moscow region cancelled as workers battled to clear runways and de-ice planes. — AFP
