From a blog:
MADRID - A RARE, heavy snowfall in central Spain closed Madrid's airport and paralysed traffic in the city and several German rivers were frozen over as much of Europe remained in the grip of Siberian conditions on Friday. Up to 10 centimetres of snow accumulated in Madrid as temperatures in the region dropped as low as minus six degrees Celsius. All four runways at Madrid's Barajas airport, Europe's fourth busiest, were closed because of the snowfall and low visibility, Spain's national airport authority AENA said.
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The northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela, a destination for thousands of pilgrims, recorded the heaviest snowfall in recent memory on Friday, according to the online edition of daily newspaper El Mundo.
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In Germany, the death toll from the cold snap rose to three and several rivers were frozen over, blocking ship traffic, authorities said. Germany is experiencing one of its coldest winters of the past 100 years, with the mercury dropping as low as minus 34.6 C (minus 30.3 F) in the mountains in the south.
Drift ice covered 80 to 90 percent of the surface of the river Elbe from Doemnitz to the Germany's main port of Hamburg in the north, a spokeswoman for the Water and Shipping Office said. Some barges had to be freed late Thursday with industrial ice breakers.
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Across the border in France, air, rail and road traffic began to return to normal in the region around the southern port of Marseille after two days of disruptions caused by heavy snow, which had paralysed the city on Thursday.
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In Portugal, four people died in a fire apparently caused by a faulty heater in an apartment building in the city of Porto. Temperatures that reached as low as minus six degrees Celsius caused authorities in several Portuguese cities to issue tents to homeless. In the north of the country snow Friday cut several main roads.
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One person also died from the cold in Poland during the night, bringing the death toll in the country to 83 since November 1, most of them homeless people.
