In England, police advised drivers to beware of black or invisible ice, and the Highway Agency said people should keep their automobiles off the roads if possible.

In Kent, the most southeastern corner of England, army troops were taking hospital staff to work in all-wheel-drive vehicles.

About 350 schools remained shut in southeast England and several roads were closed during the morning rush, causing traffic jams on the outskirts of London. Forecasters warned of more snow in eastern and northeast England as well as in Scotland.

Train service in the commuter-dense southeast was disrupted as well, with some trains cancelled and others delay by up to 70 minutes.

London itself basked in sunlight, even if temperatures hovered around the freezing point, but its subway system, the Underground, suffered delays due to the combined effect of ongoing engineering work and faulty signals.

A railway strike in northern France meant that many people had to take their cars onto the dangerously slippy roads, creating havoc around cities such as Amiens, Lille, Valenciennes and Calais.

The situation in the Calais region was rendered more chaotic by the closure of sections of the A16 highway to truck traffic. Repairs to a loading dock in the port of Calais reduced sailing capacity by a third and caused long lines of traffic on roads leading to the harbor. However, the tunnel under the English channel from Sangatte, near Calais, to Folkstone was open to both automobile and truck traffic.

In Paris, there were severe disruptions to traffic at both the main Charles de Gaulle airport, and at Orly airport south of Paris, although the city's airports authority said the situation was improving by mid-afternoon.

Several runways at Charles de Gaulle were out of operation for most of the day, with average delays of 1:30 hours. Around 100 incoming flights and 140 outgoing flights were cancelled, according to sources at the airport.

South of the capital, in the Loiret region around Orleans, school bus services were suspended for two days due to the dangerous road conditions.

Nearly 6,500 homes in France's Loire valley region were deprived of electricity early Thursday because snow caused high tension cables to snap.

Meteorologists in the Netherlands said the snowfall over the past 24 hours was some of the heaviest seen in the country for almost 20 years.

A spokesman for Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport said there were "major disruptions" to traffic, with a large number of flights cancelled or delayed due to heavy snowfall overnight.

Between two and three thousand passengers had to spend the night at the airport, the spokesman added.

In Switzerland, meanwhile, the cold snap has created an unexpected problem for farmers, as hordes of mice burrow through the deep blanket of snow, safe from predators and isolated from the chill, to munch away at crop roots.

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