Freezing Siberian cold air has settled into Europe due to an unusual southerly track of the jet stream.* Over in Ukraine there have been 114 deaths, Poland reports 82, in Serbia the death toll is now 16, 11 in Bosnia, five in Slovakia, four in Montenegro, three in Croatia, two in Macedonia and one in Albania (from news reports).
Here in Szeged the low was -5f (-25c) and tomorrow morning is supposed to be a bit colder. I heard of one fellow who has no heat in his flat and a family on a farm whose pump has frozen and they are melting snow for water to use in the house.
This makes me think of the many people caught up in situations where they are outside for long periods of time… see previous post.
I’ll be heading into deeper snow in a few days as the further south I go, the deeper the snow… I’ve already had to change plans for my Serbia to Croatia leg. The snow is keeping buses from running so I will to return to Hungary on Sunday night after just a few hours in Serbia speaking to a group of churches and on Monday catch a bus across southern Hungary to a train south into Croatia. Hopefully, there will be no problems with this route.
Tonight I read that Hungary closed the Danube. One captain noted that he had not seen this much ice in the river since 1985. Here is what it looked like yesterday before I left Budapest…
I think this closes the Danube to shipping because of ice from Austria all the way to the Black Sea. Amazing.
Your prayers for people here will be appreciated… especially the homeless and sufferers of injustice.
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* The opposite was true back home where a northerly jet stream was keeping the cold at bay. When I left last Friday there were buds on plants and fresh green leaves emerging on my roses. What a contrast.
kingdom travelin' 