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STORM

Tanks come to aid of ice storm victims

Army recovery vehicles and tanks have been assisting 80 people in Austriaโ€™s eastern state of Burgenland who are trapped in their homes because of dangerous and icy weather conditions.

Published: 4 December 2014 11:31 CET
Tanks come to aid of ice storm victims
Photo: APA

The army has been delivering food to homes in Forchen­stein-Rosalia, as the community has effectively become cut off from the outside world – with even the fire brigade unable to reach it.

Ice covered trees near to houses are a particular worry as they could fall down at any moment, crushed by the weight of the ice.

Schools have been closed, power lines are down, many homes are without electricity and roads are blocked by fallen trees.

In Lower Austria a state of emergency has been declared in the districts of Horn, Zwettl and Krems with freezing conditions and black ice a danger to life. Twenty schools have been closed and 60 major roads blocked.

Hospital staff are working around the clock with hundreds of people having slipped on ice and injured themselves. The fire service has been called out 1,300 times. Around 500 homes in Lower Austria are still without electricity.

In Styria 600 households are without electricity, with emergency services on high alert.

The weather forecast for Friday says that the icy conditions will continue, with temperatures rising slightly over the weekend.

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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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