We've dodged much of winter's wrath in Canada with higher than normal temperatures and smaller amounts of snow this year. The same can't be said for other parts of the world.
A cold snap returned to Japan this week bringing blizzards and creating record snow piles in some areas. The city of Niigata in central Japan has already seen 13 feet of snow and the weather agency is predicting up to 25 additional inches over the next few days, reports WFMY News. The village of Okura has received more than 10 feet of the white stuff and the Hokuriku area received three feet in less than 24 hours.
It is no wonder this road in Japan has massive snow walls on both sides. The video below shows footage from a bus travelling up the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route. Snow is as high as 10 metres above the road in some spots.
In much of Europe, the situation is not different. The freezing temperatures have been responsible for taking hundreds of lives and transportation has all but stopped in many countries.
Thick ice covers the Danube River, halting ships and freezing many in place.
In Italy, soldiers worked to free villages trapped in more than 10 feet of snow and distributed 4,000 spades to residents. Even the Coliseum in Rome was blanketed by the white stuff.
The record low temperatures are making life difficult for people still living in tents after an earthquake rattled Turkey in October. The country moved 134,000 into temporary homes, but there were still about 7,500 living in tents as temperatures dipped well below zero.
The unusually cold and snowy weather is also providing some amazing images, including the one showing a car and tree trunks completely covered by ice in Switzerland.
(AFP photo)
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