Heavy snow and freezing rain caused widespread disruption across the U.K. on Sunday, with several major airports forced to suspend flights and many key roads in the north of England becoming unnavigable, media reports said.
At the same time, snow and black ice forced the cancellation of dozens of flights at Germany's Frankfurt Airport, the country's largest, on Sunday.
In all, 120 of the 1,990 flights at the airport in the country's west were canceled, with a spokesperson telling Agence France-Presse (AFP) that take-off and landing runways needed clearing while "de-icing the planes is also more complex and more demanding."
With the weather set to stay inclement on Sunday, there are concerns that many rural communities in the U.K. could be cut off with up to 40 centimeters (15 inches) of snow on the ground above 300 meters (985 feet), a report by The Associated Press (AP) said.
The National Grid, which oversees the country's electricity network, has been working to restore power after outages across the country.
The company’s live map shows power cuts in Birmingham in central England, Bristol in the west and Cardiff in Wales.
Many sporting events have already been postponed, but the heavyweight Premier League fixture between Liverpool and Manchester United is still on, though there will be another inspection later.
Liverpool's John Lennon Airport and Manchester Airport had to close runways and divert flights; Birmingham Airport also suspended operations for several hours overnight but said it was scheduled for "business as usual" on Sunday.
The road network was also heavily impacted on what would have been a very busy day, with many families returning home from the Christmas and New Year break and students heading back to universities.
On the railways, many services were canceled and National Rail warned of disruption continuing into the working week.
Britain's main weather forecaster, the Met Office, has forecasted that the sleet and snow will continue to push north on Sunday and will be heaviest in northern England and southern Scotland. After experiencing freezing rain for a time, the south will turn milder.
Meanwhile, 35 flights were canceled in Germany's Munich as a precaution late Saturday evening out of 750 departures and landings scheduled at Germany's second-largest airport, a spokesperson told AFP.
Disruptions began on Friday evening at Berlin-Brandenburg airport, with 30 flights canceled due to icy conditions in the capital.
The meteorological office warned of freezing rain on Sunday after snowfall overnight and recommended passengers avoid unnecessary travel.
Moreover, a powerful winter storm bore down over the United States on Sunday, with meteorologists warning millions in the east that they faced blizzard conditions and that some areas would see the heaviest snowfall in a decade.
More than 60 million people are in the path of the dangerous storm, which is set to plunge the eastern half of the U.S. into a deep freeze of Arctic air through Monday, resulting in severe travel disruptions.
The National Weather Service (NWS) warned of ice, snow and gale-force winds in states from the Central Plains to the Mid-Atlantic.
Winter storm warnings have been issued from western Kansas clear across the coastal states of Maryland, Delaware and Virginia, an unusually broad 1,500-mile (2,400-kilometer) swath under immediate threat.
"Disruptive winter storm to impact the Central Plains to the Mid-Atlantic through Monday with widespread heavy snow and damaging ice accumulations," the NWS warned earlier.
In its latest report early Sunday, the agency's Weather Prediction Center said the storm will produce heavy snowfall and wind gusts exceeding 40 mph (64 kph) in parts of Kansas and Missouri.
The snowfall amounts will exceed 15 inches (38 centimeters), "the heaviest in a decade," the agency said.
