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WEATHER

Madrid hospitals inundated with snow and ice injuries

Hospitals across the Community of Madrid have been inundated with people needing treatment for injuries sustained in the ice.

Published: 12 January 2021 13:02 CET
Madrid hospitals inundated with snow and ice injuries
Photo: Fiona Govan/The Local

Across the region, hospitals emergency departments dealt with 1,200 patients with injuries sustained falling in the ice.

According to Pedro Villarroel, head of emergency medicine at Madrid’s hospital Clínico, “We have seen three times the number of usual traumatology cases on Monday alone”.

After Storm Filomena brought the heaviest snowfall in at least half a century to Madrid over the weekend, a steep drop in temperatures has turned accumulated snow into ice.

Monday night was recorded as “the coldest in the entire county at least since the cold snap of 2001,” according to Rubén del Campo, forecaster for the national weather agency AEMET.

A trip to the local shop now involves navigating snowpiles, fallen branches, and channels of lethal black ice, despite efforts by neighbourhood groups to clear the paths and lay salt.


Photo: AFP

The ambulance service, Samur-Civil Protection, reported that during Monday more than half of their call outs (169 out of 294) were for incidents caused by falling or slipping in the icy conditions.

While Madrid 112 dealt with 411 cases related to falls between 6:00 and 18:30 on Monday throughout the region.

 

 

Driving conditions for vehicles except 4x4s remain treacherous and the region’s few snowploughs have been working to clear main thoroughfares in the capital before starting on smaller streets.


Photo: AFP

Added to that is the danger of falling icy blocks from accumulated snowdrifts on roof tops and broken masonry from the weight of the snow.

On Monday evening, warned Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, warned people not to be complacent.“This is not over,” he said urging citizens to avoid road travel as much as possible. “It is essential to maintain all safety precautions and not let ourselves be fooled by the clear skies. Snow can become a trap for vehicles and citizens.”

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WEATHER

Norway to get a taste of summer with 20C days this week

Summer is finally here! Or least it is if you live in southern Norway, where a warm front coming up from Europe will bring t-shirt temperatures of 20C by Thursday, according to forecasts.

Published: 30 April 2024 08:42 CEST
Norway to get a taste of summer with 20C days this week

Warm air from southern Europe will combine with a high pressure zone which will bring clear skies and sunshine, with summery weather coming towards the end of the week, Norway’s national weather forecaster Yr has reported. 

“Thursday and Friday especially will be nice,” Ingrid Villa, a meteorologist at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, told the public broadcaster NRK. “Then we will probably get temperatures of over 20 degrees Celsius in some places.” 

Patches of 20C warmth are expected both in western Norway around Bergen and in Western Norway around Oslo, with the area around Tromsø expected to have slightly cooler weather, although Villa said that “it will absolutely be something like summer there too”. 

The warm sunny weather is, however, expected to pass northern Norway by, with grey overcast skies expected for much of this week. 

But if you think summer has come to Norway to stay, you risk disappointment as much cooler temperatures are expected next week.  

“There’s nothing unusual in getting an early taste of summer in April and the start of May, and then we can quickly go back to cooler more spring-like weather,” Villa said. 

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