The death toll from storms that have battered Spain, Portugal and France rose to nine on Sunday as the region braced for more violent winds and heavy rain.
Storms Elsa and Fabien have flooded rivers, brought down power lines, uprooted trees and disrupted rail and air travel across the region, leaving more than 118,000 households without electricity.
Two people have died in Portugal and seven have been killed in Spain, the worst affected country, after a fisherman was swept off rocks into the sea in Catalonia.
The local government said three police officers and another fisherman had to be rescued after they tried to save the man in the resort town of Sant Feliu de Guíxols, 70 miles (100km) north-east of Barcelona.
Hazardous driving conditions led to a chain reaction of crashes on Virginia's Interstate 64 as 35 vehicles piled up. Several injuries, ranging from minor to life-threatening, have been reported.
Police say the crash took place around 7:50 on Sunday morning on Queens Creek Bridge, near the historic town of Williamsburg. Fog and ice made driving conditions treacherous, and led to the accident.
Photos taken at the scene show vehicles smashed together, some piled on top of one another. Rescue workers can be seen alongside power tools used to cut through the twisted metal.
Fayaz Bukhari, Govind Sharma Daily Excelsior Sat, 21 Dec 2019 15:25 UTC
Stuck trucks
While fresh snowfall in Kashmir and higher reaches of Jammu region this evening forced closure of Jammu-Srinagar National Highway and cancellation of several flights to and fro Srinagar Airport, one person was killed and eight others were injured when a Tempo carrying them from Srinagar to Jammu was hit by shooting stones.
As predicted by the weathermen, Kashmir valley and higher reaches of Jammu region including Chenab valley areas received fresh snowfall today ahead of Chillai-Kalan which begins tomorrow whereas plain areas of Jammu received moderate rainfall, leading to drop in temperatures across the Union Territory of J&K. The snowfall led to slippery road conditions near the Jawahar Tunnel area forcing authorities to close the NH-44 for traffic this evening.
An official said that around 1000 vehicles crossed Jawahar tunnel towards Srinagar before the NH-44 was closed for traffic due to snowfall near the Tunnel. He added that around 3 inches of snow had accumulated at the Jawahar Tunnel.
The official said that around 1000 vehicles were stranded between Udhampur and Jawahar Tunnel due to closure of the highway while 7000 trucks were stranded in Qazigund area.
Work was done yesterday to shovel snow off the roofs of the houses, as well as away from a window on the 2nd floor so the building could be entered.
"We've never before had snow on this scale," states Valgeir Þorvaldsson, director of the Icelandic Emigration Center in Hofsós, North Iceland, located in two-story houses that almost disappeared under a thick blanket of snow during the big storm last week.
"When building these houses, it never occurred to us we'd have to shovel [snow] off these roofs. There are, I believe, 9 meters (30 ft) up to the gable of the biggest house, and the roofs are very steep, too," he continues.
When contacted by mbl.is on Monday, he had just finished assisting 30 horses in accessing hay in the deep snow.
"Maybe this is why people emigrated to America," Valgeir ponders.
The past week has seen plenty of snow falling in Europe and North America, with Canadian resorts finally getting a good slice of the snow action. In the US, the Pacific Northwest is about to get hammered, but it will be quieter in both the Sierras and Rocky Mountains with a short period of fine weather on the way. As for Japan, the poor start continues, with claims it has been the worst December in over a decade, but there are signs things may soon change for the better.
USA
All the current action in the US is happening in the Pacific Northwest where it is snowing across the Cascades and is set to continue over the next two to three days, and the forecast totals are big, Mt Baker in line for 120cms while Stevens Pass should see 85cms. This is a big turnaround as the snow cover in the Cascades was poor, that region having missed out on the big storms experienced in the Sierras and the Rockies over the past three weeks, the most recent being last weekend.
Violent winds and torrential rain battered Spain and Portugal overnight leaving at least four dead, rescuers said today, as the Iberian Peninsula braced for the arrival of another storm.
In Portugal, one man died in a road accident caused by a falling tree 50 kilometres south of Lisbon, while another was killed when a house collapsed in Viseu, 300 kilometres north of the capital.
A third man was also missing in the same area with rescuers fearing he had been swept away while driving his tractor near a flooded river.
In Spain, a man died in a landslide in the northern mountains of Asturias where the winds reached 160 kilometres per hour, while another was killed when a wall collapsed in a park in the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela.
Unusual vortex winds across our planet continue to increase as the Suns out decreases. Highest ever recorded tornado in Bolivia, water spouts in Indonesia, tornado out breaks in December USA, 2x Medicanes in a month North Africa dumping record snowfall in November. A month of rain in hours 4x in the last 30 days and record crop yields in Norther Africa from all the additional rainfall for the 3rd year in a row.
Death toll from landslide in Tashkent metro rises to 6
A landslide caused by heavy rains has claimed the lives of six construction workers in Uzbekistan's capital, Tashkent.
The Emergency Ministry said the incident occurred on December 18 on a section of the Tashkent metro's Yunusobod line that is currently under construction.
The ministry said the rescue operation ended on the morning of December 19 after all six bodies were recovered.
It said that a government commission had been set up to establish whether the tragedy could have been prevented.
In advance of the Christmas-New Year's holiday, Kirkwood and Mount Rose became the first major ski areas in the Tahoe region this week to open 100% of their terrain. At the same time, top-to-bottom skiing, along with vast new scopes of runs and acreage, is being unveiled at many ski areas for the weekend across the High Sierra.
It comes in time for Christmas, answering the wishes of thousands of skiers, boarders and vacationers who plan to head to snow country for the holidays.
"It'll be a snow-filled holiday here in Tahoe," said Russell Carlton of Vail Resorts, which operates Kirkwood, Heavenly and Northstar ski resorts. "Each of our ski areas have received more than 10 feet of snow this season, including nearly 8 feet of snow in December alone at Kirkwood and Northstar."
At Kirkwood, located near Carson Pass on Highway 88 about an hour south of South Lake Tahoe, 12 of 12 lifts are up and running for access to 2,400 acres of terrain.
Mount Rose, located on the Nevada side of Tahoe outside of Reno, has counted 134 inches, or more than 11 feet, of snowfall for the season,and is also expected to have 100% of its operation open for the weekend.
Comment: Two dead, hundreds of thousands of homes without power as powerful storm hits southwestern France