Much of northern France was bracing for heavy snowfalls Wednesday evening, the third bout of unusually thick snow to fall in three weeks.
Already, air, rail, and road traffic was seriously disrupted during the weekend and up until Tuesday evening after the last bout of bad weather left as much as 30 centimetres of snow in mainly northern and eastern regions.
Flights in and out of France were severely curtailed during the past four days, with airport closures and cancellations, but also because many northern and eastern European airports were also out of operation because of the snow.
Airlines and public services were forced to mobilize on several occasions to either help stranded passengers stuck in major airports or to rescue motorists trapped in their vehicles in some areas.
The Interior Ministry has on several occasions called on motorists in several parts of France not to take their cars out, while trucks have been banned from roads, also.
On Wednesday, Frances national weather service “Meteo France” warned that up to 10 cm of snow could fall later in the day, and the poor weather is expected to affect 20 of Frances departments, or districts, in a zone stretching from the west coast to the Luxembourg border in the east.
The Paris region, which lies in the centre of that zone, should be hit by snow in the early evening, the weather service said.
Meanwhile, air traffic from the two major Paris airports resumed progressively on Tuesday night and into Wednesday, as airlines tried to clear a backlog of thousands of stranded passengers, some of whom had been camping in the airport since Sunday.
