Winter finally arrives with a vengeance

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The toll from Europe's killer cold snap is climbing. Overall, 107 people have died of hypothermia in Poland since winter hit in November. The current cold snap began at the end of January, and across the Continent authorities have reported about 330 cold-related deaths. In neighbouring Lithuania, where the mercury has dipped to minus 31degC, the deaths of 12 more people over the weekend brought the cold snap's toll to 23, but life goes on. Former Otago Daily Times journalist Sharon Fowler filed this report on life in ice-bound Lithuania.

Cold winters are part of life in Lithuania, but this winter a heavy snow storm followed by an extreme drop in temperature has resulted in challenges for residents, particularly motorists.

My husband Kel and I lived one winter in Vilnius, the capital of this Baltic State, and have lived in the milder coastal city of Klaipeda for nine winters. We are used to rivers and the Baltic Sea freezing, snow ploughs clearing roads from November until March or even April, and life going on as usual, amid temperatures usually well below zero Celsius.

December, then January, seemed warmer than usual and Klaipfda people were wondering if they would even experience "winter", by which they mean, below minus 10degC. However, about a week and a-half ago, temperatures started to drop.

They fell to minus 20degC, then warmed to about minus 12degC, and it snowed. Unusual for it to snow when so cold, but it did.

Then temperatures dropped again.

On Saturday they plummeted to reportedly minus 30degC.

Local people were smiling; winter had finally arrived.

However, when that snow fell, it froze, leaving about 4cm of packed snow and sheet ice on roads which were then not cleared.

As morning temperatures remained at minus 26degC on Monday our and most of our neighbours' cars would not start and a later drive around the city revealed many other vehicles also refusing to start. The electricity was not working in our Opel Astra, meaning no car lights, radio or electronic locks functioned.

A neighbour had a spare battery, which he used to start our car, letting it run for a few minutes, then replacing his battery with ours. Like many other drivers, Kel then spent 20 minutes letting the car warm up, while he carefully removed ice and snow from the vehicle's exterior. In such conditions, car door handles and plastic trimming can become brittle and break off.

Other people around the city were using a variety of means to start their frozen cars. Pushing cars is not possible with the yards and driveways full of ice, but drivers towed other cars, so they could be clutch-started. Some used jumper cables. The extreme cold has caused more problems than usual for winter.

Once vehicles are actually on the city roads, drivers are discovering these roads are more dangerous than usual. Lithuania usually has an excellent system of laying salt or sand on roads and snow ploughs regularly clearing away the snow. Driving in winter is not usually a problem, other than occasionally, when blizzards decrease visibility. And the snow ploughs cannot be everywhere at once.

However, this season the Klaipfda city council has allegedly been putting salt on the roads but not grading them. At minus 30degC, the salt does not seem to work. Certainly at the weekend and on Monday even main city roads had not been cleared. Some roads are icy and slippery and on Saturday, the police said officers were being called out to many weather-related accidents.

Turning off a car engine while filling the petrol tank is safe practice in most places, but this week in Klaipfda drivers are keeping vehicles running while filling up with petrol. If they did not, the cars would stop in the cold.

Lithuanians who live in concrete apartment blocks built during Soviet times are subject to central heating which the city turns on some time in October and off some time in April. Citizens cannot turn this radiator heating on or off, or control its level. This heating is on 24 hours a day for months and the energy company controls its level, although sometimes locals can request it be turned down or up. This leads to expensive heating bills and many complain, particularly during autumn and spring, people often open windows to let out the heat.

However, these past two weeks, I suspect residents have been thankful for this compulsory ex-Soviet heating, although, no doubt, less happy about forthcoming bills.

On a more amusing note, at temperatures of minus 7degC and lower, men's nasal hair freezes within seconds of being outside, while moustaches freeze within minutes at about minus 14degC.

For leisure, the really-hardy continue to enjoy saunas inside, then leap into frozen lakes or the sea to cool down, before returning to a very hot sauna.