Heavy snowstorms pounds Germany & causes difficulties for traffic in west side of country.
On Sunday, snowstorms and strong winds hit northern and western Germany. It is forcing trains to cancel trips and causing hundreds of vehicle accidents. According to police, 28 people injured on the icy road.
Germany’s weather service DWD urged people to stay home. Also authorities to move the homeless to warm emergency shelters when temperatures were low.
The national rail operator Deutsche Bahn announced that a major rail line between Hamburg and Hanover had canceled. It is due to piles of snow accumulating on rails and power lines. Several rail services to the east have also suspended, although most of the snow has fallen to the northwest.
Police in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia said, “they had counted 222 traffic accidents due to bad weather. According to them, two of the 28 people injured seriously.
In the Münsterland and Ostwestfalen regions, authorities banned trucks from driving on the highway. While 55 trucks in the state of Hesse trapped in the snow. They tried to climb a section of the highway near Knuellwald towards Kassel and elsewhere.
The Bundesliga football match between Arminia Bielefeld and Werder Bremen also canceled hours before due to a snow storm.
Due to the heavy and continuous snowfall coupled with freezing weather, it cannot guarantee that the game will play properly. According to a statement from the German Football League. A new date for the game will announce soon.
What is happening in west?
In the western city of Muenster, the worst-affected area, there was so much snow on the roads that ambulances could no drive. All other public transport had also stopped. More than 30cm of snow fell and accumulated up to 1m in places, and more snow also expected on Sundays.
In West Germany’s Wuppertal, firefighters had to rescue six passengers from the city’s famous railway line after a train stopped operating due to ice conditions.
They have to climb stairs to reach people on the train and help them get up, reported.
In the western city of Hagen, a circus tent collapsed under the weight of the snow. But firefighters were able to rescue 13 animals buried in the tent. Seven horses, two camels, two goats and two llamas found under a tent and in the snow, but no animals got any injury, officials said.
In Hagen, too, city officials took to the streets at night, waking the homeless sleeping outside and taking them to emergency shelters, reports the media. In Berlin, the capital’s largest animal shelter, a suburban tent city, was cleaned early Saturday to ensure that people don’t freeze to death in low temperatures.
When the western part of the country froze, southern Germany felt calm and like spring.
This unusual separation of time and temperature is caused by arctic cyclones pushing icy cold air from the Arctic into northern Germany, as is the low-pressure front that brings warm and humid weather from the southwest, media reports.
Netherland also covered with snow
In the Netherlands, snow has covered much of the country, forcing the government to cancel its weekly crisis meeting to discuss the coronavirus pandemic. Train traffic has stopped and Amsterdam Schiphol Airport has alerted passengers of possible canceled flights.
The national operator NOS shows photos of an early morning snowball fight involving residents and police officers in Amsterdam’s central Dam Square.
As heavy snowstorms pounds Germany, the Dutch weather agency KNMI has issued weather warnings coded red for the entire country.
