Flooding, snowfall and high winds have swept across the UK and continental Europe. Airport cancellations and power outages have resulted from the wintry conditions.
Storm Egon caused flight cancellations in airports across EuropeImage: picture-alliance/dpa/T. Frey
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Freezing weather hits southern and eastern Europe
It's a delight for winter sports lovers, but for those without a home or central heating, the cold can be deadly. More than 70 people have died so far, and temperatures are only creeping up slowly.
Image: Reuters/L. Foeger
Can you see the sea?
It's hard to imagine in the summer when this promenade in Thessaloniki, Greece, is crowded with tourists in swimwear. The beach, lying somewhere behind the lanterns, has become invisible under a thick layer of snow. While the ice has started to melt in southern Greece, the North is still experiencing record-low temperature.
Image: Reuters/A. Avramidis
The killer cold
In Poland alone, 27 people have died since the beginning of the year because of the icy weather. Some froze to death during temperatures of up to minus 25 degrees Celsius (minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit), others were poisoned by fumes from badly ventilated heaters.
Image: picture-alliance/NurPhoto/J. Arriens
Waiting for a warm meal
In the Balkans, many refugees did not have sufficient protection from the cold. According to aid agencies, more than 1200 migrants were forced to sleep out in the open in the Serbian capital Belgrad in sub-zero temperatures.
Image: Reuters/M. Djurica
Rescued from an icy demise
The cold affects not just humans, but also animals. This bird got lucky - the Doiran lake in Macedonia did not become his final resting place. A fisherman saved the animal after it froze to the water.
Image: Reuters/O. Teofilovski
Drift ice in the Hungarian capital
Winter showed its beautiful side in Budapest, as the Danube river separating the districts of Buda and Pest carried drift ice towards aHungarian parliament lit up in bright orange by the sunset. While the icy Danube enchanted tourists, the cold put many poor Hungarians in danger. According to the interior ministry, 185,000 families relied on emergency firewood supplied by the government.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/A. Kisbenedek
Ceasefire for the snow canons
This fluffy white dust is all natural and not artificial – in Zauchensee, a popular skiing area in Austria, mother nature gave the snow canons a well-deserved break. According to forecasts, Austria and its southern neighbors will continue to experience ice cold weather for the next few days.
Image: Reuters/L. Foeger
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As inhabitants in Europe and Great Britain headed to sleep on Thursday night, storm Egon bore down on the region, causing transport complications and power outages in numerous countries Friday morning.
Flooding in England
The storm first dug into Britain during the evening hours of Thursday, bringing heavy snow to Scotland, Northern Ireland and parts of England. The Environment Agency issued severe flood warnings for coastal areas of South East England where gale-force winds and heavy rain posed a threat to life. Parts of the seaside counties of Suffolk, Essex and Lincolnshire were evacuated and authorities offered shelter for displaced residents and their pets.
London's Heathrow Airport canceled 80 flights in advance of the inclement weather on Thursday evening, though a return to the normal flight schedule was expected Friday.
Snow caused traffic jams for many in North Rhine-Westphalia on Friday morningImage: picture alliance/dpa/M. Becker
Flight delays and high winds across Germany
Egon also caused Frankfurt's international airport, Germany's busiest, to cancel 125 of the approximately 1,100 scheduled flights for Friday.
"The storm was so strong that the airplane handling crews had to be temporarily stopped," a spokesperson for the Frankfurt airport company told AFP.
In Lower Franconia (or Unterfranken), a region of northwest Bavaria, the storm prevented school buses from picking up students to take them to school.
Though Egon did not immediately deliver the feared heavy snowfall in North Rhine-Westphalia, the storm did drop enough to make morning commutes messy. In addition, the low-pressure front's high winds felled trees, pushed cars and trucks into roadside ditches, and knocked over street signs in much of Western Germany. In Rhineland-Palatinate, winds reached a speed of up to 148 kilometers an hour (92 miles an hour.)
The storm is expected to continue bringing high winds and snow to Eastern Germany throughout the day, causing further delays and potentially dangerous situations.
High winds uprooted trees and damaged street signs and housesImage: picture-alliance/dpa/Wiesbaden112 GbR
Night on train in northern France
In France, Egon caused power outages for over 330,000 households concentrated especially in the northern Normandy and Picardy regions. Passengers on the Thalys high-speed train that runs from Brussels to Paris were forced to spend the night on the train after it was forced to stop on the tracks because of damage to the contact line. The train eventually arrived in Paris on Friday morning significantly later than its expected Thursday evening arrival.
The south of France also experienced Egon's full meteorological force. In the town of Saint-Jeannet near Nice, a woman was killed by a falling cypress tree Friday morning while taking her children to school.
Dangerous roads and canceled trains in Switzerland
Swiss rail and road travelers faced train delays and icy roads on Friday morning as Egon's winds reached hurricane force of 154 kilometers per hour (96 miles per hour) in the area west of Zurich.
The Swiss Federal Railway closed sections of track south of Lake Constance and canceled trains in the Basel area. A 10-car collision in a highway tunnel further tied up traffic due to wintry conditions.
Freezing weather hits southern and eastern Europe
It's a delight for winter sports lovers, but for those without a home or central heating, the cold can be deadly. More than 70 people have died so far, and temperatures are only creeping up slowly.
Image: Reuters/L. Foeger
Can you see the sea?
It's hard to imagine in the summer when this promenade in Thessaloniki, Greece, is crowded with tourists in swimwear. The beach, lying somewhere behind the lanterns, has become invisible under a thick layer of snow. While the ice has started to melt in southern Greece, the North is still experiencing record-low temperature.
Image: Reuters/A. Avramidis
The killer cold
In Poland alone, 27 people have died since the beginning of the year because of the icy weather. Some froze to death during temperatures of up to minus 25 degrees Celsius (minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit), others were poisoned by fumes from badly ventilated heaters.
Image: picture-alliance/NurPhoto/J. Arriens
Waiting for a warm meal
In the Balkans, many refugees did not have sufficient protection from the cold. According to aid agencies, more than 1200 migrants were forced to sleep out in the open in the Serbian capital Belgrad in sub-zero temperatures.
Image: Reuters/M. Djurica
Rescued from an icy demise
The cold affects not just humans, but also animals. This bird got lucky - the Doiran lake in Macedonia did not become his final resting place. A fisherman saved the animal after it froze to the water.
Image: Reuters/O. Teofilovski
Drift ice in the Hungarian capital
Winter showed its beautiful side in Budapest, as the Danube river separating the districts of Buda and Pest carried drift ice towards aHungarian parliament lit up in bright orange by the sunset. While the icy Danube enchanted tourists, the cold put many poor Hungarians in danger. According to the interior ministry, 185,000 families relied on emergency firewood supplied by the government.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/A. Kisbenedek
Ceasefire for the snow canons
This fluffy white dust is all natural and not artificial – in Zauchensee, a popular skiing area in Austria, mother nature gave the snow canons a well-deserved break. According to forecasts, Austria and its southern neighbors will continue to experience ice cold weather for the next few days.
