Freak Snowstorm Hits Pyrenees With Meter Of Snow - Most In Nearly 50 Yrs - Thousands Stranded - AFP

[hatrack]

Heavy snow Tuesday stranded thousands of road travellers on the French-Spanish border, blanketed Italian cities and left 10,000 homes in Corsica without power. A freak snowstorm dumped more than a metre (3.3 feet) of snow on the Pyrenees mountains, stranding more than 6,000 travellers Tuesday and blocking some 40 roads between France and Spain.

Cross-border traffic was halted, leaving a tailback of 1,750 trucks on the French flank of the mountains, parts of which suffered last week when the area was battered by hurricane-force winds and heavy rain. Barcelona on Monday saw its heaviest snowfall since 1962, triggering emergency measures, with weather-related problems reported across the region.

Northeastern Spain came to a frozen standstill late Monday. Flights were cancelled, schools closed and the entire Barcelona region saw major disruption to road and rail transport.

In the Girona region, Spanish energy company Fecsa-Endesa said 200,000 households were without electricity, while snowfalls of up to 50 centimetres (almost two feet) saw schools closed Tuesday for 165,960 pupils. In the Aude region of southern France, firefighters and local authority workers brought hot food and drink to 1,800 passengers stuck on trains, and 550 retirees and school children on bus tours to Spain.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Freak_snowfalls_strand_6000_on_Franco-Spanish_border_999.html

[phantom power]

1. have you ever seen the air so clear?

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