Heavy snow brings traffic woes to northern France

Thick snowfall added to the misery of the daily commute for millions of Parisians on Thursday, causing dangerous driving conditions for motorists heading into the centre of town. The snowfall, only a week before Christmas, was a rarity for the French capital, which generally does not see snow before the late winter -- if at all. The snow was caused by cold air coming from Eastern Europe. A total of 51 departments (counties) in the northern part of the country went onto orange alert as authorities grappled with the climate conditions amid worries that the state electricity distribution network might not hold up in the face of sharply increased demand.Residents in Brittany and the Provence region of southern France have been warned that they may face power cuts lasting up to two hours. Officials at electricity distribution network RTE have said the cuts could affect tens of thousands of people at a time if they come.But with no threat of power cuts in the capital, ordinary Parisians were happy to enjoy the snow.It would be even nicer if it settled a little and if we had 10 centimetres of snow that we could keep for three or four days, said Cecile de Tuny, a passer-by at the Arc de Triomphe. Meteorologist Patrick Galois said snowfall in France just before Christmas was a rare occurrence.It is true that with global warming, in the last 30 years we have been able to notice a tendency towards less and less snow in the winter time in France. But, even so, there is always some snow. In general, the snow falls more often in January and February than in December. So, it is rather rare to have this kind of snowfall in the middle of December, he said. But he said that despite global warming, snow and frost would continue to occur. Climate change goes mostly in the direction of heating, in the direction of reducing the snow, so what we are actually seeing is a climate hazard, which means that the climate can be a little colder or warmer, and it changes day after day. So, even if we have fewer waves of frost and less snowfall, because the climate changes, it does not mean that we will not have them anymore. So it is not directly linked to climate change.