WINTER STILL GRIPS CONTINENT

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5318, 3 February 1947, Page 5

WINTER STILL GRIPS CONTINENT

( Press Assn.-

bleakwind and snow reports from world gentres

—Rec. 9.30 p.m.)

LONDON, Feb. 2. It is another kleak day in London, with thin sleet and a cold wind driving along the streets. The temperature is still around, about freezing point, for the tenth successive day. Glasgow had 15 degrees of frost on Friday. Reports of the weather from many parts of the world have been coming in from correspondents. Two men and two women in evening dresses returning* from a dance at Plymouth were trapped for 12 hours in a snowdrift which completely covered their car. A mail van drive;' discovered them when his vehicle skidded and brushed the side of the snowbank, revealing the buried car. Meanwhile, Moscow radio has reported mild, dull weather in north Russia. The radio, said the temperature at Archangel at midnight was only four degrees below freezing . point. War ra in Washington Although the temperature in Washington yesterday was normal for this time of the year, it has been having a warm spell. On Thursday the temperature was the highest " ever recorded for that period. People were walking about -the streets in their shirt sleeves and were expecting the cherry trees to blossom at any moment. ' A Paris eorrespondent describes the cold in the last few oays as acute. Coal was short enough before, but the freezing of canals and the slowing of the rail transport has cut down deliveries enormously. At the same tipie electricity has been cut and gas pressure reduced during the night. Gas fumes killed '10 people in Paris when •the pressure was restored. They had forgotten to turn off the taps. Even the Riviera, happy hunting ground of xvinter sun seekers, has been forced into line with the rest of the country by bitter winds and heavy "snows. For the first time in many years, people have been seen on skis in towns like Nice.

Cadavers Frozen in Berlin In Berlin, a eorrespondent has been wondering whether the city wrapped in frozen snow is more atractive than in the gruelling summer heat. He makes the grim comment that it is now too cold for any smells from the piles of rubble under which thousands cf bodies still lie buried. In this way, he says, winter is passable. Lately, when temperatures have averaged 10 degrees of frost during the night, the people in the city have stvuggled to keep warm without thought of niuch else. There is hardly a liabitable building without at least one burst pipe, and those who are forced to sleep in small huts and shambles find that their washing freezes in the tubs and thing are covered in ice. So far, 60 people -have died from the cold, and nearly 20,000 are suffering from frostbite.

Cairo Bathed in Sunshine In Reme, it has pnly been wet, cold and miserable. Other parts of Italy have been having thick snow and temperatures several degrees below freezing point. In Venice, the snow lies thick on thq®rooftops. Across the Mediterranean to Cairo, people from home rub their eyes in wonder at the sunshine. It is dazzling with pure blue skies. At the big * Sporting Cluk in the city, they are playing polo, golf 01* tennis, or just lazing and sitting in the sun. The temperature is up above 70 in the daytirne, although cool at night. "We are having lovely flowers and fruit now," a eorrespondent says, "astors, marigolds, oranges, peavs and bananas, fresh gi*een peas and strawberries."