Europe, U.S. still reel under chill

Thousands of Eurostar passengers anxious to get away for Christmas battled for train places out of London on Wednesday as heavy rains and freezing conditions sparked yet more travel chaos across Europe.

Meanwhile, a major winter storm is promising to bring a white Christmas to parts of the West and Midwest U.S.— and also threatening to cause long delays and tough driving conditions for countless holiday travellers.

At least three people died in road accidents in Britain and northern Italy overnight after heavy snowfall, while frozen airports sparked further flight delays and a Ryanair jet slid off the runway in Scotland.

Floodwaters drenched most of Venice, as a combination of wind, rain and the lagoon city’s periodic tidal phenomenon saw water levels rise by 143 cm, a record for the year, said officials.

Most European airports were back to normal on Wednesday, a day after hundreds of flights were scrapped across western Europe, though budget airline easyJet announced dozens more cancellations at British airports due to snow.

Heavy rains closed motorways in southern Spain and Portugal, where power lines were also cut by heavy winds overnight. Snowfall also forced school closures in northern Spain.

Blizzard warnings

The major storm in U.S. is expected to dump more than a foot of snow on parts of Colorado and Southern Utah, and blow east into the Plains states through Christmas Day. Blizzard warnings were likely on Christmas Eve in Kansas.

“Pretty much the entire central and southern Rockies are going to get snow, and then it’s going east and will drop more snow,” said the weather office. South Dakota declared a state of emergency on Tuesday. A tropical jet stream pumping in moisture from the storm’s south was likely to cause plenty of snow as the storm headed into the Plains states.

A winter storm watch was in effect for most of southeast Colorado, the panhandle of Oklahoma and north Texas through Thursday. By Tuesday afternoon, light snow was falling in Salt Lake City.

The winter conditions follow a weekend storm that dropped record snowfall and interrupted holiday shopping and travel on the East Coast.