Aspundir: Extreme cold weather hits Europe

Extreme cold weather hits Europe

Frigid temperatures have gripped Europe in the last week, with the mercury reaching as low as 35 degrees Celsius below zero. After what had been a relatively mild winter, the sudden cold caught many unprepared. Eastern Europe is hardest hit, with over 100 deaths in Ukraine, and with over 11,000 people in remote villages cut off by snow in Serbia. Most of the fatalities recorded have been homeless people found frozen to death outside, and emergency tents with hot meals have been set up to help them in several affected countries. Russia and Poland are mobilizing help for the homeless. Travel in Romania has been chaos as a blizzard hampered efforts to clear both rails and roads. Recorded temperatures in Italy were the lowest in 27 years. -- Lane Turner (45 photos total)

A woman looks out a bus in Bucharest on February 2, 2012. (Vadim Ghirda/Associated Press)

Snow paints a scene in Rubi, Spain on February 2, 2012. (Manu Fernandez/Associated Press) #

Skiers approach Wendelstein church near Bayrischzell, Germany on January 31, 2012. (Lukas Barth/dapd/Associated Press) #

A homeless man emerges from Warsaw's underground heating duct where he lives on February 2, 2012. (Janek Skarzynski/AFP/Getty Images) #

Homeless men gather in Warsaw's underground heating duct on February 2, 2012. (Janek Skarzynski/AFP/Getty Images) #

A homeless woman, Anna Svrcinova, sits in an abandoned factory that served her as a shelter during a cold night in Prague on February 2, 2012. (Petr David Josek/Associated Press) #

Homeless people eat a hot meal and drink hot tea in one of newly opened tent shelters in Lviv, Ukraine on February 1, 2012. (Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP/Getty Images)#

Homeless people eat a free dinner provided by the Russian Orthodox church in Moscow on February 1, 2012. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/Associated Press) #

A homeless man drinks tea in a shelter in Donetsk, Ukraine on February 2, 2012. (Alexander Khudoteply/AFP/Getty Images) #

A woman rests in a shelter for adults and the elderly in Belgrade on February 1, 2012. (Marko Drobnjakovic/Associated Press) #

People carry food supplies in a remote village cut off by road due to high snowfall near Sokolac, Bosnia on February 1, 2012. Rescue helicopters are airlifting supplies and evacuating dozens of people from snow-covered villages in Bosnia as the death toll from Eastern Europe's severe cold spell has risen to 79. (Radul Radovanovic/Associated Press) #

Emin Hotovic, 55, carries a 25-kilo sack of flour and some groceries to his remote village of Hotani, Bosnia on February 2, 2012. (Amel Emric/Associated Press) #

A woman carries firewood in Bucharest on January 31, 2012. (Bogdan Cristel/Reuters) #

A man braves the bitter cold as he makes his way to exercise in a park in Moscow on February 1, 2012. Temperatures in Moscow fell to -21 degrees Celsius. (Mikhail Metzel/Associated Press) #

People walk on frozen Black Sea waters next to an ice-covered dam in Constanta, Romania on February 1, 2012. (Daniel Mihailescu/AFP/Getty Images) #

A snow kiter makes his way on the Schauinsland mountain near Freiburg, Germany on February 1, 2012. (Winfried Rothermel/dapd/Associated Press) #

Television technicians move their equipment from the field as the Italian Serie A soccer match between Parma and Juventus is cancelled due to weather at the Tardini stadium in Parma on January 31, 2012. (Alessandro Garofalo/Reuters) #

Ducks take off from a pond in Minsk, Belarus on February 1, 2012. (Sergei Grits/Associated Press) #

Deer run in a snow-covered field near the village of Mileikovo, Belarus on January 31, 2012. (Sergei Grits/Associated Press) #

A cow looks out of its stable in Davos, Switzerland on February 2, 2012. (Arno Balzarini/Keystone/Associated Press) #

A stray dog sleeps in the snow in Bucharest on January 26, 2012. (Radu Sigheti/Reuters) #

A pug dog strolls on a street in Gelsenkirchen, Germany on February 2, 2012. (Martin Meissner/Associated Press) #

A seagull rests in Istanbul on February 1, 2012. Heavy snow and cold weather paralyzed life in Istanbul and closed several roads in eastern Turkey. (Associated Press) #

A man rides a horse in the village of Vrapce, Serbia on February 1, 2012. (Sasa Djordjevic/AFP/Getty Images) #

A horse-drawn sleigh makes its way on a snowy road in Klosters Monbiel, Switzerland on February 2, 2012. (Arno Balzarini/Keystone/Associated Press) #

A man walks his dog along the banks of the Neris river in Vilnius, Lithuania on January 31, 2012, as morning temperatures plummeted to -23 Celsius. (Mindaugas Kulbis/Associated Press) #

A pedestrian walks past a frosted window in Pristina on February 1, 2012. (Visar Kryeziu/Associated Press) #

A man walks through blowing snow in Roncesvalles, Spain on February 2, 2012. (Alvaro Barrientos/Associated Press) #

Boys play on a frozen pond in Prague on January 31, 2012. (David W Cerny/Reuters) #

Young men enjoy hockey as the sun sets over a frozen dam in Brno, Czech Republic on February 1, 2012. Temperatures in the Czech Republic plummeted to lows of minus 30 Celsius. (Petr David Josek/Associated Press) #

A heating plant obscures the sun in Minsk, Belarus on February 1, 2012 as temperatures of minus 21 Celsius hit the Belarusian capital. (Sergei Grits/Associated Press) #

A passenger boat sails at sunrise in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, Ukraine on February 1, 2012. (Andrew Lubimov/Associated Press) #

A small cutter makes its way to the Harmaja lighthouse off the coast of Helsinki on Feburary 1, 2012. (Martti Kainulainen/AFP/Getty Images) #

Icicles hang on the branches of a bush on the banks of the River Elbe in Dresden, Germany on February 2, 2012. (Norbert Millauer/dapd/Associated Press) #

Reed sprouts are covered with ice at Lake Zwischenahner Meer in Bad Zwischenahn, Germany on January 31, 2012. (David Hecker/dapd/Associated Press) #

Frost decorates a window on February 1, 2012 in Godewaersvelde, France. (Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images)#

An Orthodox Christian cathedral stands amid a winter landscape in Kiev on January 30, 2012. (Efrem Lukatsky/Associated Press)#

A van drives along a road near the village of Sliznevo as temperatures fell to minus 34 Celsius outside Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk on January 30, 2012. (Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)#

People walk through the snow in Istanbul on February 1, 2012. (Associated Press)#

A policeman tries to open the frozen door of his car stuck in a snow drift during a blizzard in Afumati, Romania on January 26, 2012. (Bogdan Cristel/Reuters)#

A man walks in the center of Kiev where temperatures dropped to minus 20 Celsius on February 1, 2012. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images)#

A Ukrainian angler, in a tent for protection from the wind and cold, fishes through an ice hole on the Dnipro River outside Cherkasy, Ukraine on February 1, 2012. (Efrem Lukatsky/Associated Press)#