BERLIN (AP) – Heavy snowfall in Germany on Tuesday led to more serious traffic congestion, including a 23-mile (37-kilometer) logjam in which hundreds of cars and trucks got stuck on a freeway for hours in sub-zero temperatures.
Hundreds of vehicles were stuck on the A2 motorway in West Germany in that traffic jam all night, Bielefeld police reported early on Tuesday. Rescue teams went from car to car to hand out blankets and hot drinks, German news agency dpa reported.
Traffic congestion due to snowfall and icy roads was also reported in the state of Brandenburg in the east and in the state of Hesse in central Germany. The train service was also partially canceled in several regions, and snow plows worked around the clock to free the traces of ice and snow.
The country’s transport minister called on the Germans to stay at home and avoid traveling.
“When conditions are so extreme, even the best track heating and snow plow can reach their limits,” said Andreas Scheuer.
The snowy weather also affected Dortmund regional airport in western Germany, where all flights were canceled or diverted to other airports until 6am on Thursday.
More snow was forecast for Northern Germany for Tuesday, especially for Schleswig-Hollstein, German weather service DWD reported.
Parts of central and northern Europe, as well as Great Britain, have been under the spell of a cold weather front since the weekend that the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, the Dutch National Weather Service, called Storm Darcy.
In the neighboring Czech Republic, trucks formed miles of traffic lines on the D8 motorway connecting the capital Prague with Germany. Traffic was halted after Czech and German authorities closed the tunnels on both sides of the border and the border crossing at night due to severe weather.
Meanwhile, people in Prague enjoyed the best snow conditions in ten years for cross-country skiing on Prague’s famous Charles Bridge and the nearby picturesque Little Quarter.
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This story has been corrected to show that it was the Dutch national weather service, and not the British forecasters, which Storm called Darcy.