Barges also broke adrift under the pressure of the ice as it melted and broke up following a rise in temperature at the end of a two-week cold snap that killed hundreds of people across Europe.

"Hundreds of small boats were damaged or sunk, while almost 90 percent of rafts were moved up to 20 metres (yards) downstream," Zoran Matic of the Belgrade water company told AFP.

Three ice-breakers had been brought in to reduce the pressure on rafts "in order to save what could be saved," Matic said, adding that at least one raft-restaurant sank.

"The damage is enormous. This is a disaster," a desperate boat owner told a local radio.

During the cold snap, which brought temperatures well below freezing for days on end, the 2,860-kilometre (1,780-mile) Danube, which flows through 10 countries and is vital for transport, power, irrigation, industry and fishing, was nearly wholly blocked by ice, from Austria to its mouth on the Black Sea.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:57:58 AEST Los Angeles (AFP) Feb 20, 2012 - Four people were killed in two avalanches that swept through an area near a ski resort in the northwestern US state of Washington, authorities said.

US media initially reported that at least eight others were missing in the incidents, which took place Sunday near Stevens Pass in the Cascade Mountains northeast of Seattle.

But King County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Kathleen Larson said the eight had "managed to to dig themselves out of the snow."

However, three skiers who were part of that group did not make it out alive, and efforts to revive them through CPR procedures had been unsuccessful.

Officials said the group was skiing in a restricted, avalanche-prone area that was marked by clear signs warning people of the danger.

Meanwhile, a second avalanche, near the ski resort of Alpental, buried a snowboarder, officials said. The man was found a half-hour later but efforts to revive him were also unsuccessful.

The Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center on Sunday had issued a warning about "high avalanche danger" above 5,000 feet (1,500 meters), and a "considerable" danger below that elevation.

It was not immediately clear the elevation at which the avalanches occurred.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:57:58 AEST The Hague (AFP) Feb 19, 2012 - The condition of Prince Johan Friso, son of Dutch Queen Beatrix remained unchanged for the second night in an Austrian hospital after a horror skiing accident, the Dutch Royal House said Sunday.

"The health condition of his royal majesty Prince Friso remains unchanged," at the intensive care unit of the Innsbruck University Hospital, it said in a statement issued in The Hague.

"He is stable, but not out of danger," it added, using the same terms to describe the 43-year-old prince's condition on Saturday.

A prognosis would most likely "not be given before the end of this week", the statement added.

Prince Friso was skiing off-piste with an unnamed Austrian friend, around noon Friday when he was buried by an avalanche near Lech, where the Dutch royal family traditionally take their winter holidays.

Despite wearing a ski-helmet and an avalanche beeper, the prince spent some 20 minutes under the snow before he was rescued and had to be resuscitated, Austrian news reports said. He was evacuated to Innsbruck by helicopter.

Queen Beatrix, 74, as well as the prince's wife Mabel Wisse Smit were again at the hospital Sunday, Dutch news reports said.

Other members of the Dutch royal family, including Johan Friso's brothers, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, his wife Maxima, and younger brother Prince Constantijn with his wife Princess Laurentien arrived there Friday night.

Dutch public broadcaster NOS showed footage Sunday of Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and Maxima taking their three young daughters -- as well as Prince Friso's two small daughters skiing, saying they wanted to keep the situation "as normal as possible".

In a statement, issued Sunday night, the royal family thanked well-wishers for their support.

"We are thankful and deeply touched by the well-wishes. It's a great support in this difficult time," the statement said.

Austrian prosecutors announced Saturday they had launched an investigation into the accident, though this is a routine matter in this kind of incident.

At the time of the accident, the avalanche alert level in Lech -- as in much of Austria -- was at four, the second highest.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:57:58 AEST Vienna (AFP) Feb 16, 2012 - The westernmost Austrian province of Vorarlberg was cut off from the rest of the country Thursday after avalanches forced the closure of road and rail connections, authorities said.

Part of the main motorway running east-west through Vorarlberg was hit by an avalanche Wednesday evening, prompting its closure.

A car was lightly damaged in the process and one person was brought to hospital for observation.

The Austrian Rail link to neighbouring Tirol was also shut, as well as countless roads, leaving several valleys cut off from the rest of the world, including the popular Arlberg ski resorts of Lech, Zuers and Stuben.

Further avalanches around the region did not cause any injuries however, the authorities said.

Between 60 and 70 centimetres (around two feet) of fresh snow fell, according to local emergency services, with the avalanche risk rated at level four, the second highest.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:57:58 AEST Boulder CO (SPX) Feb 16, 2012 - Equipped with specialized lasers and GPS technology, scientists are working to address a critical wintertime weather challenge: how to accurately measure the amount of snow on the ground. Transportation crews, water managers and others who make vital safety decisions need precise measurements of how snow depth varies across wide areas.

But traditional measuring devices such as snow gauges and yardsticks are often inadequate for capturing snow totals that may vary even within a single field or neighborhood.

Now scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., and at other institutions are finding that prototype devices that use light pulses, satellite signals and other technologies offer the potential to almost instantly measure large areas of snow.

In time, such devices might provide a global picture of snow depth.

"We've been measuring rain accurately for centuries, but snow is much harder because of the way it's affected by wind and sun and other factors," says NCAR researcher Ethan Gutmann.

"It looks like new technology, however, will finally give us the ability to say exactly how much snow is on the ground."

NCAR is conducting the effort with several collaborating organizations, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Colorado Boulder.

The work is supported by NCAR's sponsor, the National Science Foundation (NSF).

"Snow represents both a hazard and a water resource in the western states," says Thomas Torgersen, NSF program director for hydrologic sciences. "Both require detailed assessments of snow amounts and depth. This technology will provide new and important guidance."

Emergency managers rely on snowfall measurements when mobilizing snow plows or deciding whether to shut down highways and airports during major storms.

They also use snow totals when determining whether a region qualifies for disaster assistance.

In mountainous areas, officials need accurate reports of snowpack depth to assess the threat of avalanches or floods, and to anticipate the amount of water available from spring and summer runoff.

But traditional approaches to measuring snow can greatly underreport or overreport snow totals, especially in severe conditions.

Snow gauges may miss almost a third of the snow in a windy storm, even when they are protected by specialized fencing designed to cut down on the wind's effects.

Snow probes or yardsticks can reveal snow depth within limited areas. But such tools require numerous in-person measurements at different locations, a method that may not keep up with totals during heavy snowfalls.

Weather experts also sometimes monitor the amount of snow that collects on flat, white pieces of wood known as snow boards, but this is a time-intensive approach that requires people to check the boards and clear them off every few hours.

The nation's two largest volunteer efforts--the National Weather Service's Cooperative Observer Program, and the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS)--each involve thousands of participants nationwide using snow boards, but their reports are usually filed just once a day.

More recently, ultrasonic devices have been deployed in some of the world's most wintry regions.

Much like radar, these devices measure the length of time needed for a pulse of ultrasonic energy to bounce off the surface of the snow and return to the transmitter.

However, the signal may be affected by shifting atmospheric conditions, including temperature, humidity and winds.

The specialized laser instruments under development at NCAR can correct for such problems.

Once set up at a location, they can automatically measure snow depth across large areas. Unlike ultrasonic instruments, lasers rely on light pulses that are not affected by atmospheric conditions.

New tests by Gutmann indicate that a laser instrument installed high above treeline in the Rocky Mountains west of Boulder can measure 10 feet or more of snow with an accuracy as fine as half an inch or better.

In a little more than an hour, the instrument measures snow at more than 1,000 points across an area almost the size of a football field to produce a three-dimensional image of the snowpack and its variations in depth.

Gutmann's next step will be to build and test a laser instrument that can measure snow over several square miles. Tracking such a large area would require a new instrument capable of taking more than 12,000 measurements per second.

"If we're successful, these types of instruments will reveal a continually-updated picture of snow across an entire basin," he says.

One limitation for the lasers, however, is that light pulses cannot penetrate through objects such as trees and buildings.

This could require development of networks of low-cost laser installations that would each record snow depths within a confined area.

Alternatively, future satellites equipped with such lasers might be capable of mapping the entire world from above.

Gutmann and Kristine Larson, a scientist at the University of Colorado, are also exploring how to use GPS sensors for snowfall measurements.

GPS sensors record satellite signals that reach them directly and signals that bounce off the ground.

When there is snow on the ground, the GPS signal bounces off the snow with a different frequency than when it bounces off bare soil, enabling scientists to determine how high the surface of the snow is above the ground.

Such units could be a cost-effective way of measuring snow totals; meteorologists could tap into the existing global network of ground-based GPS receivers.

However, researchers are seeking to fully understand how the density of the snow and the roughness of its surface alter GPS signals.

"Our hope is to develop a set of high-tech tools that will enable officials to continually monitor snow depth, even during an intense storm," Larson says.

"While we still have our work cut out for us, the technology is very promising."

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:57:58 AEST Bucharest (AFP) Feb 15, 2012 - Another seven deaths from Romania's wave of bitterly cold weather has brought the toll up to 86, the health ministry said Wednesday, as the country struggled with up to five metres of snow.

The seven deaths came amid a growing row over the authorities' failure to protect vulnerable people trapped in their homes by the heavy snowfalls, which in some cases have completely buried houses.

The latest interior ministry report said 225 towns and villages were still cut off by the snow, with 156 main roads impassable.

Seventy teams of workers from the Electrica power company have been working to restore electricity to some 4,200 over four regions.

Interior ministry helicopters have had to carry out 26 airlifts to get people to hospital.

Officials now fear that the thaw of the massive amounts of snow will create a fresh crisis from the consequent flooding.

Paraglider brings food to snowbound Romanian village
Dumitresti, Romania (AFP) Feb 15, 2012 - With its roads cut off by heavy snowfall for days, a village in central Romania received welcome deliveries of food and medical supplies on Wednesday -- from a paraglider.

Marian Ciobanu, a 40-year-old man from Bucharest, decided to fly above the village of Valea Salciei in order to airdrop the supplies, according to an AFP photographer.

All roads leading to Valea Salciei have been cut off by heavy snowfall and ice since Romania became caught up in Europe's big freeze three weeks ago.

On Wednesday, 225 towns and villages were still cut off by metres of snow, the interior ministry said. Some are getting food and medical aid only by helicopter.

Local and national authorities have been criticised for their slow reaction to the situation, especially in clearing snow on rural roads.

A total of 86 people have died in the cold snap in the last three weeks, according to the health ministry.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:57:58 AEST Rome (AFP) Feb 14, 2012 - Heavy snow has caused extensive damage to the mediaeval walled town of Urbino and further deteriorated the Colosseum in Rome, already badly in need of repair, Italian newspapers reported Tuesday.

Partial collapses have been reported at the convents of San Francesco and San Bernardino in Urbino and the roof of the Church of the Capuchins outside the town centre has completely caved in, La Repubblica reported.

There is also water damage in the town's 12th-century Duomo cathedral.

The roof at the Church of the Holy Cross in the nearby town of Urbania also collapsed and a collection of paintings, drapes and ancient globes has had to be removed from the town's Ducal Palace due to fears of a collapse.

Thirteenth-century church doors in the town of Cagli have also been damaged.

In Rome, fragments have fallen from the Colosseum which remains closed to tourists. The famous Roman amphitheatre, which is at the centre of a busy road junction, is blackened by pollution and has been losing pieces for years.

A long-delayed restoration of the 2,000-year-old monument is set to start next month, with funding from Italian billionaire Diego Della Valle.

Snow-hit Romania could halt electricity exports
Bucharest (AFP) Feb 14, 2012 - Romania may halt electricity exports and limit supplies to industrial consumers in a bid to meet rising household demand due to freezing temperatures, the government said Tuesday.

The electricity transportation company Transelectrica can limit or halt exports and diminish supplies to industrial consumers until stocks are back to normal levels and the balance between production and consumption restored, a decision adopted by the government reads.

"This is a precautionary measure that will be enforced only in case of need," Prime Minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu told reporters.

He stressed that the aim was to make sure households would not be affected by power cuts.

The restrictions are applicable from February 16 to March 15.

The economy ministry said the move was taken after a 50-percent drop in the level of the Danube and inland rivers, rising gas consumption and the difficulty of supplying coal to thermal-power stations due to heavy snowfalls and freezing temperatures.

The head of Transelectrica was sacked Monday after implying that households too could suffer from electricity shortages.

Romania last year exported 2.4 billion kilowatt hours.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:57:58 AEST Moscow (AFP) Feb 13, 2012 - Some 215 Russians have died this year in a prolonged period of abnormally cold winter weather, the health ministry said Monday as the overall death toll for Europe rose to well over 600.

Heavy snow continued to fall on Monday in Romania and Bulgaria, but the cold snap that froze much of Europe for the past two weeks began to ease in the west of the continent.

In Russia, 215 people died and 5,546 people suffered from hypothermia and frostbite, including 154 children, between January 1 and February 13, the ministry said in a statement.

While accustomed to frosty winters, Russia has seen 20 days of unusually cold weather, with the average temperature falling 7 to 14 degrees Celsius below average, the state weather service said.

In Moscow, the temperature was minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus four Fahrenheit) on Monday afternoon, the state weather service said.

While Russian apartment blocks are generally well heated, the homeless are particularly at risk.

In a stunt to protest the prices that Ukraine pays for Russian gas the Ukrainian feminist group Femen braved the cold to pose topless outside the Moscow headquarters of Russian gas giant Gazprom.

The women were escorted away by security guards after about 10 minutes, an AFP photographer said.

Over the last 24 hours, the coldest temperature measured in Russia was -52.8 degrees Celsius (-63 Fahrenheit) in Toko in the northern Sakha republic, the state weather service said.

Meanwhile in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, authorities set up shelters in the capital Tbilisi on Monday after two homeless people died during the coldest weather for decades.

"The situation is very serious as far as homeless people are concerned," Tbilisi Mayor Gigi Ugulava said in a statement after visiting a hospital where a further three homeless men were reported to be in intensive care.

Ugulava said that municipally funded canteens that provide free food to the poor would be turned into temporary shelters.

Two homeless men died Friday after being admitted to hospital with hypothermia, one in the capital and the other in the western town of Ozurgeti, local media reported.

Temperatures fell to minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) in Tbilisi on Sunday -- the lowest recorded in the capital for 40 years, according to local media.

In Romania, the death toll from the cold increased to 74 on Monday as new snowfalls blanketed the south of the country.

"Unfortunately there have been six new deaths due to cold, five of which occurred outside, on the streets or in courtyards, and one in a non-heated building," said deputy under-secretary for health Raed Arafat.

Snow disrupted road and railway transportation in the south and in Bucharest. More than 300 passenger trains were cancelled, officials said.

In neighbouring Bulgaria where heavy snowfalls also took place, the newspaper Trud on Monday said 47 people had died of cold or drowned since late January. There is no official death toll.

In Bosnia, an 84-year-old woman was found dead of cold in Foca, while in neighbouring Montenegro one of 80 passengers who have been stranded in a train for the past three days because of an avalanche died of a heart attack.

The total number of deaths in the western Balkans was put at 56.

Twenty people have died in Serbia, 13 in Bosnia, 10 in Kosovo, five in Montenegro, three in Croatia, three in Albania and two in Montenegro.

In Sarajevo the heavy snowfall caused the roof of the Olympic sports hall in Skenderija to collapse but no one was injured.

At the Grbavica football stadium, part of the stands also crumbled under the weight of the snow, an AFP photographer reported.

Over the past two weeks at least 135 people have died of the cold in Ukraine, 82 in Poland, and 45 in Italy.

In western Europe, temperatures began to return to normal February averages.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:57:58 AEST Palic, Serbia (AFP) Feb 13, 2012 - Hiding in the Serbian woods, a group of Asian illegal immigrants tried for weeks to pass the border with Hungary, until the current freezing weather forced them to break cover and accept help.

Now they risk being deported.

Just kilometres (miles) away from European Union soil in Hungary, Afghan Shahid and his fellow illegal immigrants abandoned their camp in the woods, giving up for the moment their dreams of a better life in Europe.

Now, the rag-tag group of some 40 immigrants was huddled together in an abandoned restaurant, a refuge organised by the Serbian Red Cross.

Inside, the temperature hovered around the freezing point -- but that was still better than outside, at minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit).

Skinny, with wild unkempt hair but clear eyes, 17-year-old Shahid from Afghanistan said he had already tried once to cross to Hungary.

"The Hungarian police have already caught me once and I returned to Serbia. It is very cold, but as soon as the weather improves I will try again," Shahid, from Jalalabad, told AFP.

Like his companions, he did not want to elaborate on his past or how he ended up in the Serbian woods. With others -- Pakistanis, Indians and other Afghans -- he was biding his time in the improvised camp in the woods, which they nicknamed the "jungle".

But as temperatures last week dropped to a murderous minus 25 degrees Celsius (minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit), the immigrants eventually decided to accept help from the local Red Cross.

The move could see them eventually deported to their countries of origin by the Serbian authorities.

On Lake Palic, popular with summer visitors, the Fontana restaurant has stood abandoned for years. Inside, the paint is peeling off the walls and the only furniture consists of two improvised tables with mattresses and blankets on the floor.

"The authorities decided on Wednesday to task the Red Cross with helping those people in order to avoid tragic consequences," local Red Cross official Pecze Mihaly told AFP.

The number of illegal immigrants trying to reach the European Union from the woods in Serbia had been on the rise in the last few months, he said.

"Their number varies between several dozens and several hundreds depending on weather conditions."

"We provide ... three meals a day, we also give them tea and they will undergo a preventive medical check-up," Mihaly said. The Red Cross would help them until the authorities here decide otherwise, he added.

The immigrants themselves had nothing apart from the clothes on their back -- and some of those had been been donated by the Red Cross. They were clearly not adequately dressed for the freezing temperatures registered in the region for the past ten days.

On site, local workers were tring to get the electricity, water and heating working to make conditions a bit more livable for the immigrants.

"It's better here than in the woods, they give us food, and now there is electricity," said Honey Singh, an 18-year-old Sikh from India's Punjab state.

"When the weather gets better I will try to continue my journey to Germany, where there are chances to start a new life," Singh added.

Others, like Pakistani Omer Amaqbool, were thinking about giving up on their European dream.

"I left Pakistan two years ago and my goal was Austria where I have a cousin," the 19-year-old said.

"But I have no more money and I don't know if I should continue my travel or return home.

"Thank God and those people here who help us," he muttered, as he tucked into the warm meal and bread served by the Red Cross.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:57:58 AEST Belgrade (AFP) Feb 11, 2012 - Snow drifts reaching up to rooftops kept tens of thousands of villagers prisoners in their own homes Saturday as the death toll from Europe's big freeze rose past 550.

More heavy snow fell on the Balkans and in Italy, while the Danube river, already closed to shipping for hundreds of kilometres (miles) because of thick ice, froze over in Bulgaria for the first time in 27 years.

Montenegro's capital of Podgorica was brought to a standstill by snow 50 centimetres (20 inches) deep, a 50-year record, closing the city's airport and halting rail services to Serbia because of an avalanche.

Eight more people were reported to have died in Romania, taking the toll for the country to 65, three in Serbia, one in the Czech Republic and one in Austria.

Polish fire brigade spokesman Pawel Fratcak said Saturday that defective heating had triggered a spate of deadly blazes in houses and apartments, with eight people killed on Friday night and three the night before.

New Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu and his defence and interior ministers, who were sworn in only on Thursday, flew by helicopter to the eastern Buzau region, one of the worst hit, on Saturday.

He called on the authorities to work hard to beat the challenges facing them, as food threatened to run out in some villages in spite of air drops.

At Carligul Mic firemen and volunteers helped people dig tunnels and trenches in the snow reaching to the house roofs in some places.

"I've never seen as much snow in my whole life," resident Aneta Dumitrache, 78, told an AFP photographer.

Authorities said an estimated 30,000 people were still cut off in Romania, and more than 110,000 in the Balkan countries, including 60,000 in Montenegro, nearly 10 percent of the population.

Belgrade has taken steps to limit electricity consumption in the face of threatened shortages, calling on companies to reduce their activities to a minimum.

With Wednesday and Thursday already public holidays for Serbia's national day, the government has also declared Friday a non-working day to extend into next weekend.

In neighbouring Kosovo, an avalanche killed at least people in a southern mountain village and left nine others trapped in several houses under 10 metres of snow.

A helicopter from the NATO-led peacekeeping force was dispatched to help with the rescue effort but could not land due to thick fog.

Forecasters expect the cold snap, which started two weeks ago, to continue until mid-February.

In Italy Rome was again blanketed by snow for the second time in a week, but authorities seemed to have learned from their previous experience, when the capital was brought to a halt.

Public transport functioned almost normally, thanks to 700 snowploughs and gritters mobilised, but other parts of the country, especially the south where snow is extremely rare, were having difficulties.

In the Calabria region, Campana's mayor Pasquale Manfredi, where many villages were cut off, likened the weather to "an earthquake without the shaking."

Meteorologists in Belgium said the country had recorded its longest cold snap in 70 years, with temperatures in Brussels' suburbs remaining below zero for 13 consecutive days.

On the French Mediterranean island of Corsica snow was up to one metre thick in the higher villages and all flights were cancelled from Bastia airport.

Many people are determined to enjoy the icy conditions to their utmost, however.

Thousands have taken to frozen lakes and rivers, including the Aussenalster lake at Hamburg in northern Germany, iced over for the first time in 15 years, which is mounting a huge festival expected to attact one million people over the weekend.

In Poland ice yachting or ice-surfing, on a surfboard equipped with skates, are the rage, while in the Czech Republic tourists have flocked to the village of Kvilda, reckoned to be one of the coldest in the country, for the experience of camping out in temperatures of up to minus 39 Celsius (minus 38 Fahrenheit).

As some Swiss regions recorded temperatures of minus 23 Celsius (minus 10 Fahrenheit), the tourism board said the ice cover on Fribourg's Black Lake was thick enough to plan for aircrafts to land on it in the coming days.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:57:58 AEST Subscribe to our daily selection of space, military, environment and energy newsletters responseText http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=0016gbbKsaiGSpQFojVO8ZoHw%3D%3D