h/t Krishna Gans; A thousand kilometres (620 miles) of traffic jams in Paris.
Snow cripples air, train and road traffic in Amsterdam and Paris
By Bart H. Meijer and Charlotte Van Campenhout
January 6, 20265:53 AM GMT+10
- Hundreds of flights cancelled in Paris, Amsterdam
- Buses in Paris suspended
- 1,000 km of traffic jams in Paris
- Trains in Amsterdam come to a halt
AMSTERDAM, Jan 5 (Reuters) – Heavy snowfall disrupted air, road and rail travel in France and the Netherlands on Monday, as hundreds of flights were cancelled in the countries’ capitals, while trains around Amsterdam came to a standstill and bus services in Paris were suspended.
Amsterdam Schiphol airport, one of Europe’s busiest hubs, cancelled about 700 flights on Monday as the airport closed to incoming traffic until 1200 GMT due to the snow, a spokesperson said. During that time, planes were diverted to other airports.
…
1,000 KM OF TRAFFIC JAMS IN PARIS
French transport minister Philippe Tabarot urged travellers to check if their flight was operating before leaving home, and to use public transport to reach the airport.
…
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/amsterdam-airport-scraps-450-flights-due-snow-ice-anp-reports-2026-01-05/
A few days ago European MSM outlets were blaming the lack of snow on climate change;
‘Ghost resorts’: as hundreds of ski slopes lie abandoned, will nature reclaim the Alps?
Phoebe Weston in Céüze
Sat 27 Dec 2025 17.48 AEDTWith the snow line edging higher, 186 French ski resorts have shut, while global heating threatens dozens more
Phoebe Weston in Céüze
Sat 27 Dec 2025 17.48 AEDTShareWhen Céüze 2000 ski resort closed at the end of the season in 2018, the workers assumed they would be back the following winter. Maps of the pistes were left stacked beside a stapler; the staff rota pinned to the wall.
Six years on, a yellowing newspaper dated 8 March 2018 sits folded on its side, as if someone has just flicked through it during a quiet spell. A half-drunk bottle of water remains on the table.
…
On the brink
The question of what to do with these places will play out across Europe’s mountains, and around the world. Skiing is disappearing from many alpine landscapes. “Many lower ones are already closed,” says Masson. “A fraction of a degree changes everything in the mountain environment. It’s the difference between having snow and no snow.”
…
On winter weekends dozens of cars still gather in the car park, with people enjoying quieter activities on the hillside, such as walking, snow-shoeing, cross-country skiing and sledging.
…
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/27/alps-france-skiing-snow-warming-resorts-closing-ceuze-landscape
Of course, that was Guardian last week. This week’s Guardian reports heavy snow in the Alps;
Weather tracker: Arctic air grips Europe as severe winds batter Corsica
Faye Hulton and Ed Walton for MetDesk
Mon 5 Jan 2026 20.15 AEDTSubzero temperatures, heavy snowfall and powerful gusts mark a harsh start to 2026 for many
It has been a cold start to the year across much of Europe, particularly in central regions, where temperatures dropped to double-digit negatives. Heavy snowfall hit parts of eastern and central Europe on New Year’s Eve, notably in Poland and Ukraine, with similar conditions across the Alps on the first few days of the year.
The cold is likely to continue this week as an Arctic air mass sinks south across Europe, pulling temperatures well below the seasonal average outside south-east Europe. Temperatures are expected to fall widely by about 5C (41F) below average, with some areas – such as parts of central and north-eastern Europe – up to 10C lower than the norm. When wind chill is taken into account, it will feel even colder.
In South Korea, the cold air mass brought snow, with Jeju island experiencing the greatest disruption. Flights and ferries were cancelled due not only to snow amounts, which reached more than 9cm in Jeju City, but also because of strong winds and significant wind shear.
…
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/05/weather-tracker-arctic-air-grips-europe-winds-corsica
Let’s hope those mild winter hikers the “Ghost resorts” author wrote about got off the mountains safely.
No doubt if harsh winter conditions continue, some true believer will start writing about how climate change makes heavy snowfall more likely.
Brilliant.
No, I don’t think so. Some copy reader needs to pay attention to what they’re reading.
Faye Hulton and Ed Walton for MetDesk just asked their AI of choice what 5C is in Fahrenheit.
A lack of knowledge led them up the garden path.
No, the copywriter needs to learn how to convert C to F, and delta C to delta F.
Yes, that’s as much a part of paying attention to what he’s reading as knowing how to conjugate verbs.
It says “Romans Go Home!”
Does not need to learn — there’s AI.
First they’d need to know what “delta” means.
Now that’s funny!
No. Some person needs to read this stuff before letting Artificial Idiot generated copy be published.
Still, at least the Artificial Idiots employed by the gruaniad can spell better than the natural idiots they used to employ!
😎
I met someone who works for a publishing copy. A number of articles, even books, are now being written by AI. A number of authors that used to write that stuff now make a living proofing and “humanizing” what the AIs produce.
The devil is always in the detail. The minefield where literacy and numeracy come together.
The copy reader likely is a leftist, woke, idiot with a liberal arts education
No idea about converting C to F
Some of the idiots are running the country
Sad. Authors and any editors involved don’t understand basic arithmetic. They are of the people who can’t count change.
They should not be allowed to vote.
That error has happened before and they did not learn from it.
Once again The Guardian asserts (/s) its credibility.
I keep some lines around i my CoSy WorkLog so I can just
F6 to make useful tables like ft>m .c>f is one :In the UK, “The Guardian” is nicknamed “The Grauniad” due to its long history of grammatical and spelling errors.
One may now add innumeracy.
Consulting a F/C temperature conversion chart would reveal that a 5C drop = about 9 F. A daytime high of 5C = 41F.
Wholly mackerel! That’s a lot of snow!
< 4 inches?
Imagine how dreadful it must be to have almost four inches of frozen water littering roads and sidewalks. I’ll sure be glad when this global warming makes roads safe again.
Oh. My. Gawd. How will they survive!!!!!
The thing of the past has come to haunt us all.
Not me, I got no problem with 4 inches of snow.
I have been told that size doesn’t matter. 🙂
It probably is there. When I lived outside of Memphis (approx. the same altitude and latitude), half an inch of snow meant no school for the day.
Imagine my shock when we moved to SLC, and even a two-foot dump overnight failed to cancel classes!
I hope you mean that 9cm is a lot for them. Here in UP of Michigan we routinely get 6 or more inches of snowfall from lake effect almost weekly.
There have always been weather-related snarl-ups…but UK Labour, and affiliates in the rest of the world, have introduced that extra uncertainty…energy unreliability…
UK Labour have been in government for only 1 out of the last 15 years. And that the most recent one.
UK Labour are very effective. They do wield their democratic mandate with mighty impact. Their every action impacts with great force.
But they are not quite as powerful as you suggest.
“UK Labour are very effective. “
At wrecking the country on every possible level. That “mandate” did not include any of the cock ups they chose to make – they were not in the manifesto. Every move is then u-turned on. Starmer is beholden to the core islamic vote, the backbenches and the unions, whilst losing support to the loony Polanski. The country has been flushed down the net zero toilet…. effectively…
The Cabinet Office still has not drawn up a list of responsibilities for ministers after the reshuffle in September. Paymaster General Nick Thomas-Symonds admitted in a written response that an updated list of ministerial responsibilities has not been published because it “is still in production.”
Only had about four months to do it… – Guido
Suggesting Labour have a democratic mandate is laughable – it was 20% of the registered electorate who voted for these clowns, which means, 80% of us . . . DID NOT VOTE FOR THEM!!
So, a Labour mandate to do anything . . . DOES NOT EXIST!!
But that takes nothing away from the fact that it doesn’t matter which crowd of idiots form the government – regardless of political complexion, none of them have ever held real-world positions of accountable responsibility, and just about all of them are science and engineering illiterate.
NONE of them are qualified to make decisions on our behalf on most matters, but certainly NOT on matters science and engineering.
And what this state of affairs horrendously indicates is the UK democratic system is now totally incapable of doing what it’s supposed to do – serve the people.
The idiot voters voted for idiot politicians on account of the demented dreams and slogans they offered. The voters get what they deserve. The problem with democracy is that it tends to reflect the average person. This drawback can be circumvented if the voters would vote for superior independent candidates.
It would help if the electorate were offered more capable politicians to vote for. Everyone in Britain knew Starmer’s bunch were worthless but voted for them to boot out the Tories.
Voting for one to get rid of the other is a trap that plays into the party system. As for good independents. Vote for them and they will come.
In your opinion, UK Labour did not implement any of these global warming/net zero policies at any time when they were in power?
And look at the damage they’ve caused in such a short time.
Boris Johnson may not have been Labour.. but his balls were.
And he was led by his balls. !
Only 1 out of the last 15 years ? Boris Johnson has been one of the most efficient leaders Labour ever had.
Above trend sunlight in the NH Heating season and below trend sunlight in NH cooling season guaranteed above trend snowfall. But it would be a slow start because it started from a warm place with rain at lower altitude rather than snow. The snow is now coming as the land cools. Nearly all of Europe was below freezing yesterday..
Alaska now in a deep low that is increasing snowfall there:
https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/overlay=mean_sea_level_pressure/orthographic=-155.27,46.95,372/loc=-152.201,59.817
In the UK we seem to be having a taste of the future. Gridwatch shows that gas is now having to provide 58% of our electricity with wind on only 14%.
With Europe covered in snow it doesn’t look as if they will have much electricity to spare except at exorbitant prices.
Solar doesn’t look to be able to provide much either.
Fast forward to 2030 and close the gas stations as proposed, we don’t seem to have much time left to get things right.
Yes, this is the problem for the UK. The country is on the road to rationing and blackouts. The blackouts will be especially in January and February when there are blocking highs, no wind and clear skies. Its probably too late to change this, because of the lead time for new gas turbines. Even were they to reverse direction – and there is no chance of this – they probably cannot get and install the gas plant that is needed.
The present cold spell is giving an overly hopeful impresion, because wind is holding up. This has two effects, one it is giving more power than is usual in these episodes, two its bringing cold air down from the north. The real danger comes when the blocking high leads to a high pressure zone which does not allow wind from the north. It happens a few times a year, but this year they have got away with it. When it happens, which is almost inevitable sometime in the next ten years, they will get hit with soaring demand and almost no wind or solar generation.
The numbers are quite sobering. Right now peak UK demand is reaching close to 50GW – this is where it was yesterday and its heading there today. But during the long wind calms, when solar is delivering almost nothing because of the short days and angle of the sun, the current 30GW of wind can deliver under 1GW for days, under 5GW for a week or more. There is simply no way, on current plans, to deliver 50GW. The current plan is for there to be about 95GW of wind. Well, that will deliver around 3GW for one or two days in one of these calms. 15GW or less for a week or so.
It cannot be done. And that is before the extra demand from EVs and heat pumps kicks in.
http://www.gridwatch.co.uk for the detail in real time easy to follow charts.
There are a number of things the political establishment seems to be in denial about.
How likely is it? If the present plans are persisted with, sometime in the next ten years it is almost certain. The good news for the UK is that the Conservative Party seems to have woken up and be at least thinking about a U-turn. Reform, dominating in the polls, would try to act and U-turn the minute they got in. The bad news is that the present government with its huge majority does not have to hold a general election till 2029, and is not going to change direction before then. Whoever gets in then its going to take years and enormous expense to fix the mess. Its probably too late now to avoid a disaster. All they can do is plan to minimize its impact, but they will not do that because they are… in denial!
Have a bike in good repair. If you are in the country and can, install a multifuel stove, and lay in a good supply of briquettes. If in the country, consider a generator to at least keep fridge and freezer and boiler going. And if in the city? Make sure you have plenty of warm duvets and thermal underwear. You are going to need them.
Thank you michel. Your summary of the problem is the best I have read and if it is ok with you I would like to print it off and circulate it among the activists in our village.
Thank goodness I have a small generator and wood burning stove.
As long as fuel supplies last during a national blackout!
Interconnectors won’t help either.
At present we are supplying power to Europe.
Including supplying power to Denmark, the country with the highest use of renewables. They need our gas!
Sure!
I would invite them to consider the basic math around intermittency, also. See my other post here:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/01/05/europes-no-snow-global-warming-winter-just-got-buried-under-white-climate-change/#comment-4150310
This is just not going to work.
Children won’t know what electricity is.
I stopped reading at this line:
“Subzero temperatures, heavy snowfall and powerful gusts mark a harsh start to 2026 for many”
Sub zero Fahrenheit and subzero Celsius are different so what was it? Well probably Celsius as this story is about how cold it is in France.
I can’t get too excited about subzero Celsius.
After reading the comments, I had to go back to see all the silly mistakes,
“Temperatures are expected to fall widely by about 5C (41F) below average . . .”
was the best in the lot (-:
Not to be outdone by the EUSSR…
The public has been urged to stay at home as a cold snap sweeps Britain in advice reminiscent of the Covid lockdowns.
https://dailysceptic.org/2026/01/05/stay-at-home-during-cold-snap-public-told/
RIP British fortitude.
No update on Mad Milliband’s solar panels?
Not yet
They are covered in snow.
Meanwhile in the French Alps …..
https://youtu.be/94VRZOLIAI0?si=uImmKd1fkG69uA81
The French deserve to suffer!
Chamonix expecting 40cm in the next 3 days
France Snow – Snow forecast and snow conditions
According to Ventusky Chamonix has plenty of snow
https://www.ventusky.com/snow-cover-map/total#p=45.924;6.838;9
So your link is BS
As usual Banton gives us bollox.
I can see Mont Blanc and a lot of the Jura from here and was skiing in late november, when it was OK conditions.
Since then sweet F A.
This week we will have 1m of snow in the right part of the alps but according to my quite accurate weather Cham is not well placed.
Most of the big snow will fall in Switzerland and the eastern alps.
Banton, you should try travelling a bit – not doing armchair weather forecasts based on those old cretins at Metoffice and Meteo France!
Only a few days ago they were predicting sweet zilch then got it all wrong.
“based on those old cretins at Metoffice”
He used to be one. !
With low pressure system from the Atlantic crossing Portugal and Spain you get a south directional air input from the Mediterranean sea over that part of Europe so too warm for snow.
eh??
You don’t know what you are on about!
A low pressure over Spain and Portugal brings POLAR AIR over the UK and northern France.
Too warm for snow??
You kidding?
The whole of central France today is under orange for snow and Ice.
When the jetstream reverts to central atlantic warmer air as of next week THEN it will warm up.
(cold) rain which is what will happen for roughly a week before the jetstream goes north again at the end of january.
Over Eastern Europe it’s not gonna warm up.
As for the alps, in certain parts of Switzerland over next 7-10 days they’re expecting up to 2m (!) of snow.
And the skiing will be fantastic for those who have vehicles that can drive in the snow without batteries depleting/freezing.
We have been getting the same rhetoric from the Climate Alarmists here in the United States.
The ski resorts in the western U.S. were in the same shape as European ski resorts and our Climate Alarmist reporters were whining that this would be the end of ski resorts, but now, a few days later, it is snowing heavily over the ski resorts.
Nevermind!
Never bet your house on the weather not changing!
You’re right, it really is a ‘nevermind’. If there’s snow deficiency which is bad for ski resorts, that’s caused by climate change and panic is in order. If there’s heavy snow that disrupts city traffic, that’s climate change and definitely a cause for panic. If there’s heavy snow which is good for ski resorts, well that’s a nevermind. So we’ve gpt a nevermind in the ski resorts, but a lot to report in the cities.
They have a word for this.. WEATHER. !! 🙂
weather they like it or not!
(I’ll get my coat . . . )
In my part of the UK we’ve had the coldest spell of weather since Dec2010 (which was the coldest December anyone alive would have lived through). -7C last night, not cold by most standards. And a dusting of snow but nothing significant.
Jan 2025 was quite cold too, whole year turned out record warm though.
So was December 1962 (which I was alive for) not the coldest or was it in January 1963 as the snow did not fall until Boxing Day and then froze for about 3 months?
The mean CET for Dec 1963 was +2.6C, 2010 was -0.7C, not even close.
Mean is meaningless.
Certainly been a very cold start to the new year.
Here is the max and min temps since the start of the year here in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire.
Jan- max min
1st 4.2C 1.0C
2nd 1.9C -0.8C
3rd 1.8C -1.4C
4th 0.5C -3.1C
5th 0.9C -3.6C
6th min -3.8C
Because l live in the middle of a town the nights have been warmer.
Last night though it got down to -7.1C on Hatfield Moor. Here in Scunthorpe we have been having hard frosts rather then snow.
Here on the south coast last 2 nights were -6 and -7C official site.
Back in the EUSSR — thanks Strativarius (Winding Road) —
— Th. Kolbe, 05.01.2026
It always was a [very expensive] war of attrition – with added brutal sanctions that don’t work.
Just read a report on Germany that belongs on the Funny Friday link but for the people concerned it is anything but funny:
A left-wing group protesting fossil fuels is suspected of an arson attack on Berlin’s power grid. Tens of thousands of residents without electricity and heating during a severe winter cold snap. More than 45,000 households and 2,200 businesses, including hospitals and care centres, were affected with full restoration expected on Thursday.
Article Far-left arson cuts power to 45k in freezing Berlin (Gript dot ie)
Kindness, tolerance and respect (malice, bigotry and contempt) in action.
Of one person died as a result of this arson, the people involved should be given a fair trial and then hung. Barn burning is a capital offense all by itself, and if someone died…well, then get the role and tend to business. Yes, I am very bloody minded about carp like this!
Rope and crap are misspelled…damned keyboard!
If you spot a typo or wish to add additional info after posting a comment, move the mouse pointer to the to lower right corner of comment box, and there will appear a small gear wheel. Click on it and message: “Manage Comment” appears. Click on it, and “Edit” appears. Click on it and your comment is displayed in light grey text. Then after making corrections, click on “Save”.
You have a five minute window for making corrections after posting a comment.
Personally, I don’t agree with the death penalty for anything other than high treason. Imprisonment for the rest of natural life, end of.
There is always the chance of a miscarriage of justice and you cannot dig up a corpse and apologise to it.
Why not?
It worked on Nancy Pelosi.
I’d give the death penalty to hackers and scammers.
Especially for scammers who are ripping off senior citizens.
All the drug dealers from street level to cartel leaders should be put to death by hanging.
They should probably be hanged instead of hung.
Yes.
Headlines reporting an execution should not cause readers to spit their morning coffee when they read –
Murderer was well hung.
Do them both, just to be sure.
The chickens of our green-obsessed brain-adled rulers coming home to roost. But the ice queen just farted; imagine what happens when she really gets going.
The climate is just confused by all the carbon.
Soot is black carbon particles. There is very little CO2 in the air and the climate can not be confused by it. At the Mauna Loa Obs. in Hawaii, the concentration in the air is 427 ppmv. One cubic meter of air has a mass of 1,290 g and contains a mere 0.84 g of CO2 at STP. This small amount of CO2 in the does not have enough molecular mass to confuse or have any effect on the climate.
Exactly. That is why the climate is just confused by all the carbon.
Do the doom-mongers have their memories erased every year or do they just never tire of being wrong?
There’s a secret society called the BBC that gives them awards for the most inaccurate climate announcements.
They don’t care.
A strange set of weather which sees far, far more low-lying areas of Europe covered in snow but with the Alpine mountains relatively bare. This may change towards the weekend in the N. French- and Western Swiss Alps.
I wouldn’t take any notice of the UK fear porn. Yes, there are some rural regions of Scotland that really have had plenty of snow (50cm+), but 2-5cm in towns is not ‘chaos’. It’s just weather. Normal UK weather that doesn’t happen every year but happens a few times a decade.
Weather historians will take a look at January 1991 and January 1987 in Scotland, not to mention ‘The Great Blizzard’ in 1984 when whole trains were buried at Bridge of Orchy and 20ft drifts were widely reported in the South West Highlands of Argyll, with the Army dropping supplies to rural communities using helicopters.
When you drive across Rannoch Moor in a minibus with 15ft of snow piled high on either side after multiple rounds of road clearing, you know you are seeing a proper ‘winter event’.
When you hack open the River Orchy with ice axes to obtain water to make a morning brew, you know it’s quite cold. And you feel quite satisfied that your protective equipment functions when you easily survived a night camping at -8C.
And you know quite how variable the Scottish winter weather can be when in 1989, there is absolutely no snow on any mountains until March…..
Know what would be awesome? They get another heavy snow followed by sub-freezing temps for 12-18 days. Make the stupid hurt! It is the only way people learn, abundant cheap energy is the only solution.
While I agree philosophically, I am concerned about the loss of life such weather invites.
They voted for this, their energy production and distribution system would be quite capable of handling this, as it has in the past, had they not elected morons who are actively destroying them. And they have pussyfooted around with these domestic terrorist groups who are now actively sabotaging said energy production and distribution system.
it’s coming. The 2nd freeze is arriving towards end of January and nobody has twigged it yet.
Story tip:
Protest over AI, climate crisis leaves tens of thousands without power in Berlin
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/05/berlin-power-outage-officials-suspect-arson-attack.html
Blackout Reveals German Vulnerability to Infrastructure Attackshttps://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/blackout-reveals-german-vulnerability-to-infrastructure-attacks
Eurostar warns of ‘major disruption’ as power outage halts services between France and Englandhttps://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/30/eurostar-hit-by-power-outage-during-height-of-new-year-travel-season.html?recirc=taboolainternal
Given the vulnerabilities embraced with Net Zero, this could well be the harbinger of events to come.
Imagine going 4-7 days with no electricity, water, lighting, heating.
The real question is how many Olympic Swimming Pools of show have fallen.
Is it possible that this many Europeans are that stupid, or does Smartmatic run their elections, too?
Yes they are that stupid. They have been psychologically captured into being pathetic compliant sheep for authoritarianism.
Wait a second, didn’t they have a severe winter a few years ago?
Yes and a few years before that and before that and during WWI, the Battle of the Bulge was fought in nasty winter weather and before that, and Prussians were present during the extreme winter during the Revolutionary War.
Seems weather happens, eh?
It’s Snowball Warming.
Sure some ski resorts might have to close, not from a lack of snow but from too much making access routes impassable. This is January so what type of weather should be expected, anyway? But maybe this really is the onset of a new Ice Age as predicted in Sixties and Seventies. It just got delayed by the excessive use of fossil fuels, but now that we’ve been transitioning to renewable energies, the flood gates have been opened and new glaciers should be following soon.
I hope you intended to mark this with a /sarc
A few years back, I-95 in Virginia got closed for 26 hours due to a major snow storm.
Imagine the casualty counts if all of those trapped cars had been battery powered.
Imagine the repair costs to replace Li-ion batteries that had been frozen.