Snow creates slick travel from Poland to Ukraine as Alps brace for avalanches, flooding
Hundreds of firefighters and army personnel joined forces to help clear snow from the roof of a plastics factory in Ebensee, Austria, on January 12. This footage, posted by the local fire department, shows some of the hundreds of men deployed to shovel snow off the Polytec Plastics plant. Intense winter storms have hit Austria, Germany and Switzerland for several days, resulting in a number of deaths.
A period of snow will blanket parts of Poland and Ukraine into Wednesday.
Snow fell across western Poland on Tuesday morning before changing to rain during the afternoon.
Snow mixed with and changed to rain across southern and eastern Poland on Tuesday night.
Snow will also fall across the Carpathian Mountains and surrounding higher terrain of Czech Republic, Slovakia and northern Romania into Wednesday morning.
Accumulating snowfall is also expected across southwest Ukraine into the day on Wednesday.
Snowfall amounts of 2-8 cm (1-3 inches) are expected in southwest Ukraine, creating some travel disruptions.
The higher terrain from northeast Czech Republic through southern Poland, northern Slovakia and southwest Ukraine can expect widespread 8-15 cm (3-6 inches), with local amounts up to 30 cm (12 inches).
This snowfall will cause widespread travel disruptions across the region along with isolated power outages.
Warsaw is forecast to be spared from any significant accumulating snowfall; however, a period of snow can bring a coating to 2 cm (1 inch) of snow and result in some travel concerns lingering into the Wednesday morning commute.
While this storm will bring travel concerns from Poland into the Carpathian Mountains, the Alps will finally have a break from the recent, unrelenting snowfall.
Weather-related deaths have reached 26 since the start of the new year in central Europe following another round of heavy snow and avalanches over the weekend, according to the Associated Press.
While snow continued to fall on Tuesday in the Alps of Germany and Austria, it was much lighter than in recent days.
By Wednesday, dry weather will prevail across the Alps and is expected to continue into Thursday.
Milder air will move into the region through the middle of the week causing snow melt, resulting in a high risk for river flooding across southern Germany and Austria.
The risk for avalanches will remain high in the coming days due to the milder air and snow melt creating an unstable snow pack.
Another storm will target the region from Friday into the weekend, leading to more snowfall across the Alps, Poland and the Carpathian Mountains.
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