AccuWeather.com

By Jim Andrews, Senior Meteorologist

Feb 9, 2012; 5:28 AM ET

Share |

A harsh cold wave that has killed more than 300 people in Europe over the past two weeks still has a long way to go before it runs its course.

Temperatures during this stretch have been 10 to 20 degrees below normal, on average, from European Russia into the Balkan Peninsula, Germany, even as far west as France, and more such cold will grip many areas through the end of the week.

Beyond the weekend, the worst of the cold will tend to shrink. Nevertheless, European temperatures as a whole will stay below normal through at least the middle of the month. Pockets of harsher cold will also persist in eastern and southeastern Europe.

RELATED: What It's Like to Live Through Europe's Freeze

The bitter arctic air that first invaded eastern Europe late in January was still widely spread over eastern and central Europe at the start of the week. Moreover, it has fanned out over Netherlands, Belgium and France, the heart of western Europe.

This mass of cold will prove tough to dislodge any time soon, notwithstanding infiltrations of Atlantic warming into Europe's northwest.

After all, it was what meteorologists call a "blocking pattern" that first set up this remarkable bout of cold during the latter half of January.

In what had been a mild winter throughout the continent, strong high pressure built westward from the Ural Mountains. This high helped to feed cold air westward from Siberia.

As the high built towards the Baltic Sea, cold air poured into eastern and southeastern Europe. The high also shunted the Atlantic jet stream, together with its oceanic warmth, clouds and rain, northward past Iceland and Norway to the arctic Barents Sea.

That is a classic cold winter "blocking pattern" in Europe.

AccuWeather.com meteorologists expect a weakening of the blocking pattern next week in such a way as to restrict renewed influx of arctic air while also admitting some Atlantic warming into the north and west.

There is little reason to believe that any widespread mild weather will reach the heart of the continent for the foreseeable future.

Moreover, the widespread deep blanket of snow over eastern and southeastern Europe will prolong the cold wave into the latter half of February, even if at less severe levels.