© ALEX HALADA
A snowcat drives through the snow at the valley station of the Hochkar cable car at 1380 m altitude on January 13, 2019 in Hochkar, Lower Austria. - The area around Hochkar in Lower Austria, 150 km west of Vienna, was declared a disaster area due to snow depths of more than 3,5 meters.
A snowcat drives through the snow at the valley station of the Hochkar cable car at 1380 m altitude on January 13, 2019 in Hochkar, Lower Austria. - The area around Hochkar in Lower Austria, 150 km west of Vienna, was declared a disaster area due to snow depths of more than 3,5 meters.
More than 250 soldiers and firefighters have been digging out the town of Hochkar.
The town's population of 500 was evacuated amid the risk of avalanches. Five of the five hundred residents volunteered to stay behind, one of them a hotel owner who says it's been snowing for a week. The operation to dig out the town could go on for days.
Comment: The cold that is sweeping across Europe is being blamed on the meandering jetstream that's bringing arctic air further south and generally disrupting the usual weather patterns. Each year this is occurring more often and bringing longer, more intense winters, meaning even those areas that are used to heavy snow are struggling to cope:
- Swiss town cut off by heavy snowfall
- Australia extreme heatwave: 'Code red' issued as Port Augusta hits 48.9C
- Greengrocers fear winter weather in Spanish and Italian growing areas
- Wild animals descend on villages in search of food in Kashmir because of heavy snowfall
And for an idea of why this is occurring, check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Earth changes in an electric universe: Is climate change really man-made?More footage from Austria: