Baby, it’s cold outside

Was watching MSNBC the other day and it aired a clip of a British anchor taking a British meteorologist to task. The latter’s sin? He predicted a warm winter and as we all know, the cold/arctic conditions are creating havoc in Europe. The anchor yelled at the meteorologist that he did not deserve a performance bonus.  Yikes, people can really get upset about the cold weather.

We have certainly had our share of terrible winter conditions (so far), but what has been happening in Europe?

Arctic weather conditions have not only caused hundreds of deaths, but were also responsible for:

•    The subway tracks in Vienna cracked which caused numerous delays
•    A key canal to ships was shut in Germany after it iced up and a zoo moved its penguins indoors!
•    Parts of Austria felt like Siberia where an all-time low of minus 24 degrees was recorded (that’s Celsius folks!)
•    More than 160 people were trapped on a highway in northeast Germany. The people survived by running their engines until being rescued by police
•    Some 800 travelers in Lyon, France, had to spend the night at the airport
•    80,000 Poles were left without electricity
•    In Frankfurt 61 flights were canceled and more than 400 people had to spend the night at the airport
•    Strong winds and snowfall caused havoc on roads in southern Denmark and authorities warned against all unnecessary driving