At least five people have been killed in the Balkans after freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall caused travel chaos across the region.
Four people have died in Croatia and one in Serbia as a result of blizzards in the region of south-western Europe over the weekend, according to officials.
Airports and roads have been closed during the bad weather, with public transport in a lot of the major cities also being affected.
Extreme Temperatures
© Crown copyright
Mean temperature in November was 0.4C below the 1981-2010 average, the third month in a row when temperatures have been well down on normal.
The average temperature for the autumn in the UK was 8.6C, compared to the long term average of 9.5C and the coldest since 1993. It is also the sixth coldest autumn in the last 50 years.
The year as a whole is currently running as the second coldest since 1996, beaten only by the exceptionally cold year of 2010. Temperatures so far in December are 2 degrees below normal, and the Met Office are forecasting that this will continue for the foreseeable future.
One of the features this autumn is just how persistent the cold weather has been. There have not been any exceptionally cold interludes, as, for instance, we saw with the heavy snow in November 2010. Instead, the weather has just been consistently cold.
Figure 1
© Anthony Chappel-Ross/PA
A woman walks her dog through snow in Goathland, North Yorkshire, on Wednesday.
A woman walks her dog through snow in Goathland, North Yorkshire, on Wednesday.
The cold snap gripping Europe shows no sign of letting up as the UK braces for snow next week.
Overnight frosts will continue throughout next week, with increasingly wintry showers turning from sleet into snow.
A few centimetres of snow could fall in the east and hilly parts of the south-east on Friday.
Snow is continuing to fall on higher ground across Scotland, but will struggle to settle after sleet showers.
The rain and sleet will move southwards over the country while other parts will stay dry after clear spells. A cold wind is expected to sweep the entire country as temperatures struggle to rise above 4C or 5C.
Heavy snow in Turkey piled up on a pedestrian walkway causing it to collapse. Scott Pelley reports.
The island of Favignana
Genetic analysis of the bones discovered in caves on the Egadi islands provides some of the first mitochondrial DNA data available for early humans from the Mediterranean region, a crucial piece of evidence in ancestry analysis. This analysis reveals the time when modern humans reached these islands. Mannino says, "The definitive peopling of Sicily by modern humans only occurred at the peak of the last ice age, around 19,000 -26,500 years ago, when sea levels were low enough to expose a land bridge between the island and the Italian peninsula".
The authors also analyzed the chemical composition of the human remains and found that these early settlers retained their hunter-gatherer lifestyles, relying on terrestrial animals rather than marine sources for meat.
© Jessica Gow/Scanpix
A street in central Stockholm on Wednesday
A street in central Stockholm on Wednesday
The weather service issued a class 2 warning for Sweden's southeast due to the heavy snowfall and winds, meaning the weather could put the public in danger and disrupt infrastructure.
"Commuters can expect the snowfall to continue," meteorologist Linnea Rehn with the weather service SMHI tells Swedish Radio. There may yet be another 10 centimetres before this evening."
© ABC/Audience submitted
Zoe 9, of Mt Beauty, makes the most of the summer snow at Falls Creek.
Zoe 9, of Mt Beauty, makes the most of the summer snow at Falls Creek.
The ski resort received up to six centimetres of snow.
Resident photographer Chris Hocking says the wind chill took apparent temperatures to minus 6 degrees Celsius at times and the ground has turned white.
"We've probably seen four to six centimetres on the ground [and] a little more up high," he said.
"Temps are in sort of mid-winter chill and [it's] just amazing to see the ground turn pretty much white all around the resort."
Mount Baw Baw and Mount Hotham have also had snow. Gina Woodward from Mount Hotham says it is surprising, given temperatures in the north of the state broke heat records last week.
"[It's] pretty cold, minus 1.6C right now," she said.
"The sun is the primary source of heat for the Earth... This is worth keeping in mind when the Secretary General of the United Nations or any other lying politician or alleged scientist tell you otherwise."
That might just have something to do with the cooling cycle that has been active for the past sixteen years, "inconveniently" blowing a big hole in the global warming lies we've been hearing and reading since the late 1980s.
From IceAgeNow.info, a site by Robert W. Felix, the author of a book about ice ages (the Earth has been through quite a few in its 4.5 billion years), here are some recent news stories:
© USGS/Lyn Topinka
A 1984 file photo of Mount Shasta in northern California.
A 1984 file photo of Mount Shasta in northern California.
But it gets crazier.
Add in another 37 to 43 inches of snow Thursday night, and additional amounts ranging from 21 to 35 inches every 12 hours through Saturday night, plus a light dusting of 11 to 17 inches on Sunday... ...and you get a storm total of 176 inches. On the low end. Add up the high end of the numbers and you get a forecast maximum of 218 inches of snow in four days!
A record-breaking snowfall in Moscow has disrupted flights, created havoc on the roads, and forecasters say the storm will rage until Friday morning. Moscow's city hall said the Russian capital hasn't seen a bigger snowfall in November in about 50 years. The weather forecast service said on Thursday that a third of November's typical amount of snow had fallen in the past 24 hours, creating a 12 centimeter (4.7 inches) cover.
The roads in the capital were clogged up and about 70 flights from Moscow's largest Domodedovo airport were disrupter overnight. On Thursday, all three of the capital's airports are working normally.
The roads in the capital were clogged up and about 70 flights from Moscow's largest Domodedovo airport were disrupter overnight. On Thursday, all three of the capital's airports are working normally.
© AP
Nov. 29, 2012: A bulldozer removes snow in Red Square in Moscow, Russia.
Nov. 29, 2012: A bulldozer removes snow in Red Square in Moscow, Russia.
