Romans have woken up to rare snowfall after an Arctic storm passing over much of Europe dumped enough snow to force schools to close and stall public transport.
Italy’s civil protection agency decided to deploy the army to clear streets in the capital after the snowfall paralysed Rome with just a few inches of snow.
Parks that usually stay green through the winter were blanketed with snow. Even the Circo Massimo became a hotspot for snowball fights, while Piazza Navona, with its famed Bernini fountains, turned into a snow-dusted winter wonderland.
Mayor Virginia Raggi signed an ordinance on Sunday evening closing public schools as a precaution, with many private ones following suit.
Elsewhere in much of northern and central Italy, the storm also closed schools and disrupted transport.
Meteorologists are forecasting unusually low temperatures for early March. Roman Vilfand, chief of the Russian Meteorological Office, told the Interfax news agency that Muscovites should brace themselves for frosty weather in early March and could only “count on the warmth of the soul”, and not higher temperatures outside.
Croatia, meanwhile, has been gripped by freezing weather, with even towns along most of the Adriatic coast waking up to temperatures below freezing. The cold spell has closed schools in the north-west, and heavy vehicles were banned from all roads leading toward the coast.
Towns along the Adriatic coast have also been hit by strong winds which also hampered sea traffic toward the islands. Only the southern part of the coast recorded temperatures above freezing on Monday morning.
Snow and freezing temperatures have a grasp on some parts of Germany as meteorologists reported a record cold for this winter of minus 27C on the Zugspitze mountain in the Alps.
The German news agency dpa reported that in the northern city of Bremen, at least 10 flights were cancelled due to snow. Along the Baltic coast in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern several cars crashed on icy streets, injuring at least four people.
