Freezing air from Siberia sent temperatures across much of northern and eastern Europe diving on Friday and the death toll from the cold rose to more than 70 in Russia, the hardest hit in the region.
From Finland to eastern Turkey, sub-zero temperatures — sometimes accompanied by blizzards — drove people off the streets, closed schools, disrupted travel and led to cuts in power supplies.
Forecasters warned that the cold snap will last for several more days.
In Moscow, a spokesperson for the city health services said five people died overnight. The latest deaths brought to at least 71 the number of those perishing across Russia since the start of severe weather late on Monday, including 16 in the capital.
Official reporting of deaths outside the capital has been sporadic and the figures are believed to be incomplete.
In neighbouring Ukraine, seven people have died since Wednesday in the Lugansk region near the eastern border with Russia, said Volodymyr Gladchenko, an official at the emergency situations ministry.
Most died of hypothermia after drinking alcohol, he said, as temperatures dipped to minus 30 degrees Celsius.
Latvia’s meteorological centre said the temperature of minus 27 degrees Celsius in Riga was the coldest in 100 years in the capital on this day in January.
Police said four people died of the cold in Riga and two in the countryside on Friday.
As temperatures fell to minus 33 degrees Celsius in the eastern part of Estonia, a surge in demand from power plants and homes caused problems for Eesti Gaas, the country’s only gas-supply company.
Heavy snowfalls, blustery winds and plunging temperatures wreaked havoc across northern Europe, causing major disruptions in air, road and ferry traffic and leaving many people without power.
Late on Friday, the airport in Copenhagen was closed for more than two hours as the frigid weather prevented the de-icing of aircraft wings, an airport spokesperson said.
It reopened, but only for departing planes, as ”we have a major logjam of planes that need to take off after waiting for several hours”, the spokesperson, Anette Haaning, said, adding that Denmark’s main airport does not expect to return completely to normal until Sunday.
In Norway, more than 26 000 people were temporarily without power after heavy snow brought down electricity cables, and the national electricity grid Statnett warned that more power outages are likely.
Strong winds ripped roofs off buildings, and some schools remained closed or were evacuated because of electricity shortages or the risk of damage caused by the wind.
In Finland, temperatures were between minus 20 and minus 33 degrees Celsius and were forecast to dive to as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius in coming days.
Fingrid, in charge of the national electricity system, warned of a possible power shortage after Russia said freezing cold at home will force it to cut power deliveries to Finland by 25%.
Up to 1 400 villages were reported cut off by snow in central, eastern and north-eastern Turkey and there were warnings of steep falls in temperatures from Sunday.
And the Uzbekistan authorities added to the misery by banning fur-lined underwear.
Authorities in icy Tashkent, citing the ”unbridled fantasy” that the newfangled thermal undergarments could arouse, have ordered an immediate halt to sales of men’s and women’s underwear lined on the inside with animal fur. — Sapa-AFP