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Snow and wind cause Vienna airport delays

Snow and wind are causing delays at Viennaโ€™s Schwechat Airport, with many planes having problems taking off and landing due to a strong crosswind, a spokesman told the Austrian Press Agency on Monday.

Published: 9 February 2015 12:49 CET
Snow and wind cause Vienna airport delays
Photo: APA/dpa

Only one runway is currently open and plane engines are having to be de-iced, causing further delays.

Workers are busy clearing snow from the runways, but anyone planning to fly from the airport today has been told to contact the airport to check the status of their flight.

The weather has also been causing chaos on the roads, especially in the east of Austria. On Sunday, a sudden snow storm in Upper Austria surprised drivers on the A1 motorway and resulted in a massive pileup involving over 60 vehicles, with several people injured. 

There were also delays on Vienna's public transport on Monday morning. Some roads in the capital – especially the Gürtel – have been gridlocked. 1,300 workers have been employed to clear snow from the roads. 

In alpine regions the avalanche risk has been increased, especially in Tyrol. Despite the snowfall many ski lifts have been shut for the day in Carinthia. 

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WEATHER

IN PICTURES: ‘Exceptional’ Sahara dust cloud hits Europe

An "exceptional" dust cloud from the Sahara is choking parts of Europe, the continent's climate monitor said on Monday, causing poor air quality and coating windows and cars in grime.

Published: 8 April 2024 14:15 CEST
IN PICTURES: 'Exceptional' Sahara dust cloud hits Europe

Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service said the latest plume, the third of its kind in recent weeks, was bringing hazy conditions to southern Europe and would sweep northward as far as Scandinavia.

Mark Parrington, senior scientist at Copernicus, said the latest event was related to a weather pattern that has brought warmer weather to parts of Europe in recent days.

“While it is not unusual for Saharan dust plumes to reach Europe, there has been an increase in the intensity and frequency of such episodes in recent years, which could be potentially attributed to changes in atmospheric circulation patterns,” he said.

This latest episode has caused air quality to deteriorate in several countries, Copernicus said.

The European Union’s safe threshold for concentrations of PM10 — coarser particles like sand and dust that that can irritate the nose and throat — has already been exceeded in some locations.

A picture taken on April 8, 2024 shows a rapeseed field under thick sand dust blown in from the Sahara, giving the sky a yellowish appearance near Daillens, western Switzerland. – An “exceptional” dust cloud from the Sahara is choking parts of Europe, the continent’s climate monitor said, causing poor air quality and coating windows and cars in grime. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

The worst affected was the Iberian Peninsula in Spain but lesser air pollution spikes were also recorded in parts of Switzerland, France and Germany.

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Local authorities in southeastern and southern France announced that the air pollution threshold was breached on Saturday.

They advised residents to avoid intense physical activity, particularly those with heart or respiratory problems.

The dust outbreak was expected to reach Sweden, Finland and northwest Russia before ending on Tuesday with a shift in weather patterns, Copernicus said.

The Sahara emits between 60 and 200 million tonnes of fine dust every year, which can travel thousands of kilometres (miles), carried by winds and certain meteorological conditions.

The Spanish Canary Islands off the coast of northwest Africa saw just 12 days within a 90-day period from December to February where skies were free of Saharan dust, the local weather agency Aemet had reported.

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