On Wednesday, a 16-year-old boy from Australia was killed by an avalanche as he was skiing with his family in St Anton in Austria.

In Slovakia, mountain rescue said a 37-year-old Slovak man was also killed by an avalanche in the Mala Fatra mountains.

The deaths bring the number killed in weather-related incidents across Europe this week to at least 16.

A woman who was buried by an avalanche last week in Switzerland died of her injuries on Saturday, and three more skiers have also lost their lives to avalanches in Austria.

The entire Hochkar skiing area in lower Austria was closed on Monday and roads remain closed in many areas.

Galtuer in western Austria – the site of an avalanche that killed 31 people in 1999 – was also shut.

Austrian authorities have warned skiers not to go off the slopes and not to drive unless necessary.

Several railway lines in the Alps were closed, trucks and cars got stuck for hours, and schools were closed in parts of Bavaria in Germany.

Around 9,000 homes In the Czech Republic were also without electricity on Thursday after heavy snow in areas bordering Germany and Austria.

Meanwhile, rail workers in Austria dug out a mountain goat that had been completely buried by snow.

They say the animal was transfixed by an oncoming train and didn’t move away from the tracks as it passed.

Greece has been particularly cold, freezing in temperatures as low as -23C (-9F) as some of Athens’ most famous monuments got a dusting of snow.

Greek officials have said the conditions have led to three deaths, and some people have been trapped in their homes or cars by heavy snowfall.

The UK could also be experiencing cold weather towards the end of January, if early European predictions are correct.

Forecasters have said the same weather pattern which sparked last year’s “Beast from the East”, bringing freezing temperatures and heavy snow, could return.

But any cold front will come after unseasonably warm weather, with some parts of the country experiencing double figure temperatures this weekend.

Source: Read Full Article