Last week a state of emergency due to heavy snow and freezing temperatures was declared in Italy, Serbia, and Greece. Since then reports of -20 degree Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit) temperatures have been recorded throughout the continent.
Towns and villages in all around Eastern Europe, including the Balkans and Turkey, have become isolated by closed roads, impenetrable ice, and raging blizzards. A day of mourning was declared in Bulgaria after nine people in the village of Biser were killed by an 8-ft. surge of water that tore through the town.
Among those who have died from the extreme cold, 25 were in Italy. Demand for gas from Russia has skyrocketed, although Russian supplier Gazprom is unable to keep up with such widespread need. Many others killed have been homeless people in Ukraine and Poland.
The Balkans have been particularly hard-hit by the freezing weather. Approximately 20,000 homes in Serbia have been isolated by heavy snowfall over the weekend. 3,000 homes in Croatia have lost power, and streets in the Albanian region of Tropoja have been rendered unusable.
An avalance in Restelica, Kosovo, killed nine. In Montenegro, railways, the airport in Podgorica, and roads have been closed in the country's deepest snowfall since 1949.
Shipping along the Danube River has been halted.
Not all is closed off and bleak in Europe, however. In the German city of Hamburg, hundreds have been using the frozen waters for snowball fights and ice skating. Still, the cold snap shows no signs of melting away yet.
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