(Bloomberg) -- Freezing Arctic weather is testing Europe’s transport and power systems, while a blizzard is hitting the Nordic region.
In France, Storm Caetano has triggered alerts for snow and ice across a swath of the country from Brittany, through Paris to the Alps. A flight from Lyon to Caen was forced to divert to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, according to Ouest-France newspaper. Workers are trying to clear the runway at Caen-Carpiquet airport in Normandy.
As much as 40 centimeters (16 inches) of snow is forecast above 1,600 meters in Switzerland. Parts of the country’s northeast Jura are under the second-highest danger level, according to Meteo Suisse, while there are also red alerts for heavy snow in southern Germany.
There are yellow warnings for snow in northern Scotland and the southwest of England over the next two days. On Saturday, Storm Bert — a deep area of low pressure — will trigger an amber alert for heavy snow over mountainous areas of Scotland.
The icy weather will force some European countries to tap gas reserves as heating demand increases. Benchmark gas futures rose to the highest in a year.
Further north in Finland, a snowstorm dubbed Jari caused power cuts and disrupted public transport across the country.
Power companies restored connections to tens of thousands of households, leaving just over 28,000 suffering outages by Thursday afternoon, according to Finnish Energy, with winds on the west coast peaking at 34 meters per second. A train crashed into a fallen tree on Wednesday evening, while power lines have been brought down and roads blocked.
There are orange and yellow weather warnings along the Swedish east coast, with local media reporting up to 50 centimeters of snow expected in some places. People have been advised not to travel and thousands of homes are without power.
“A deep low pressure along Finland’s coast is causing strong gusts and the cold air is generating heavy snow fall,” Emma Harenstam, a meteorologist at Sweden’s national weather service SMHI, said on its website. The Swedish weather warnings extend through Saturday.
In the Mediterranean, an orange wind alert is still in place for Corsica, where port and airport operations were disrupted on Wednesday. Violent winds could reach as high as 180 kilometers (112 miles) an hour on Cap Corse.
There are also warnings for strong winds along the west coast of Spain and the Balearic Islands.
--With assistance from Eamon Akil Farhat and Nayla Razzouk.
(Updates with Storm Bert in third paragraph.)
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.