Storm Darcy: Netherlands declares ‘code red’ emergency as rare snowstorm hits

Play Video

2:37

Storm Darcy brings heavy snow and travel disruption to Europe – video

Authorities in the Netherlands declared a rare “code red” emergency for the entire country as it was hit by its first proper snowstorm in more than a decade.

Storm Darcy, which has also sent temperatures plummeting across Germany, packed winds of up to 90km (55 miles) an hour and sent temperatures as low as -5C (23F).

UK weather: Storm Darcy to bring more snowfall and gale-force winds on Monday

Read more

The weather forecasting website Weer.nl said that a force-eight wind on Sunday night was measured in combination with snowfall, adding: “This officially means a snowstorm in our country.”

“It is the first snowstorm in a long time: the last snowstorm took place in January 2010,” it said.

Dozens of flights were delayed or cancelled at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport while Eindhoven airport in the south of the country scrapped all services.

All trains were cancelled in the Netherlands, including international services to Germany. Trams were halted in Amsterdam, while a tram derailed in the snow in The Hague.

Motorists were advised to avoid travelling and more than 80 cars were reported to have skidded off the road.

Most parts of the country had between five and 10 centimetres (two and four inches) of snow but some areas received 30 centimetres, public broadcaster NOS said.

The conditions were so severe that the Dutch government had closed all coronavirus testing centres for several days.

Up to 10 days of sub-zero daytime temperatures are expected in the Netherlands, raising hopes in the skating-obsessed country that canals will freeze over.

The prime minister, Mark Rutte, has said ice skating will be allowed if the canals freeze for the first time since 2018, but warned people to observe social distancing and to try not to fall over and end up in already overstretched hospitals.

Hopes that a 200km ice-skating marathon through 11 cities called the Elfstedentocht could be held for the first time since 1997 are however on ice because of coronavirus restrictions.

All four football matches in the Dutch top-flight Eredivisie on Sunday were cancelled, as was a German Bundesliga game.

In Germany, snowfall caused major disruption to trains and cancellations of services between cities including Hamburg and Hanover.

Thick snow of up to 30 centimetres disrupted road traffic, with hundreds of accidents and part of a motorway in North Rhine-Westphalia closed by police after it turned into an ice rink.

Several vehicles were trapped beneath piles of snow and their owners had to dig them out with shovels, according to pictures on the Bild website.

Heavier snow of up to 40 centimetres was expected in parts of northern Germany overnight, meteorological service DWD said.

Belgium, which also neighbours the Netherlands, received a light dusting of snow but was expecting a big temperature drop as the week progresses. Much of eastern Britain has also been affected.