First Significant Snow hits Chicago

The Chicago area charged head-on into full-fledged winter weather Saturday as the season's first snowstorm brought a general 3-7 inch snowfall to the area. Officially the city recorded 5.1 inches of snow at O'Hare International Airport, a record amount for the date, besting the 4.6 inches that fell here in1964. Areas  west and south of Chicago were even harder hit with up to 9 inches of snow blanketing areas in a band from Dubuque to Champaign.

A cold week is in store for the area with temperatures not expected to reach or break the freezing mark. With a fresh snow cover in place, overnight lows are forecast to plummet to single digits on several nights with coldest inland location flirting with zero.

With a northwest flow of arctic air sweeping across Lake Michigan the next few days, a major lake-effect snow is likely to bury portions of northern Indiana and southwest lower Michigan. Snow totals are expected to top two feet in some areas.

Looks like the Midwest is heading for a White Christmas.

Cold Snap, Labor Strike Slow Travel in Europe

An early cold snap in Europe claimed more lives Saturday, and a wildcat strike by Spanish air traffic controllers added to the travel chaos caused by snow, ice, and in some countries flooding.

Freezing weather killed another nine people in Poland over a 24-hour period, bringing the death toll there to 46 since the beginning of November, police said.

Temperatures there dropped as low as minus 19 degrees Celsius (minus 2 Fahrenheit) overnight Friday.

In the neighbouring Czech Republic, it was minus 20 Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit) overnight, disrupting rail traffic as the ice seized up signals at several junctions.

French police blamed icy driving conditions for three deaths in the east of the country after a car slid off the road and into a canal near Plobsheim late Friday. Neither the driver nor the passengers had been drinking, police added.

Weather forecasters warned of black ice in northern France that would make driving particularly dangerous.

Officials in the French Alps meanwhile warned to watch for avalanches on Sunday in ski stations already open because of the early snow. The danger would increase Monday with fresh snowfalls and a subsequent thaw, they added.

The roof of a building at the Flamanville nuclear power station in northern France partially collapsed under the weight of snow overnight Friday, power company EDF said.

The building contained about 10 barrels of low-level radioactive waste, but France's nuclear safety agency, the ASN, classed the incident one on a scale of seven, at the bottom of the scale of seriousness.

Civil aviation officials asked airlines flying out of Charles de Gaulle, Paris' main airport, to cut back their flights by 20 percent during daylight to ease the pressure caused by the snow and ice there.

In Spain, the disruption to air traffic came mainly from a wildcat strike by air traffic controllers, which ran from Friday to Saturday evening, hitting an estimated 300,000 passengers over a long holiday weekend.

The government there put the military in command of the skies and threatened to prosecute the strikers, who had called in sick en masse rather than staging a formal strike. By Saturday afternoon, they were returning to work.

Britain's Transport Secretary Phil Hammond relaxed the maximum-hours restrictions for lorry drivers to keep the country's vital supplies moving.

"This will help us with deliveries of fuel, it will help supermarket chains with their deliveries to their stores and it will help with deliveries of salt around the country," he said.

The wintry weather has disrupted road, rail and air travel in Britain over the past few days. In many parts of England and Wales however, the snows were melting away.

Ski resorts in Scotland warned of the risk of avalanches, but the thaw there was also helping rail traffic, badly disrupted by the recent snow, to slowly get back on track.

In Switzerland, Geneva's University Hospital cancelled non-urgent operations scheduled for Monday and Tuesday to cope with a massive flow of broken bones caused by people slipping and falling in icy conditions. Operating theatres were working overtime through the weekend.

Stay tuned, a lot going on across Europe right now.

Cold Weather Blasts Europe

Northern Europe contines to be hit with cold and snowy conditions.

Dozens of people are reported to have been killed by exposure to the cold or in weather-related accidents.

The snow continues to disrupt transport networks but many airports are resuming a more normal service.

Temperatures in Poland have fallen to as low as -33C (-27F) in the past few days.

Another 12 people froze to death across Poland on Thursday night, according to police, bringing the total killed there during this cold snap to 30.

Police say many of the victims were homeless people.

Eleven people were reported to have died in Russia over the past 24 hours, and three in France. Deaths were also reported in Germany and the Czech Republic.

The snow and ice has meant widespread delays and cancellations to European flights in recent days, with the closure of a number of British airports.

London's Gatwick airport reopened on Friday morning for the first time in two days, but the authorities said it was likely to be some time before flight schedules returned to normal.

While a regular service appears to be resuming in many European airports, arrivals and departure boards are still showing delays and some cancellations.

Eurostar says it expects to operate a significantly reduced service until Sunday, but that no more tickets will be available until Monday.

Cold air moving down from Siberia has contributed to the wintry conditions in northern Europe.

Temperatures are an average 5C-10C below average in some major cities.

Snow Forces London Airport to Close

Britain's second busiest airport has closed for the day as the early winter tightens its grip on battered transport systems across the United Kingdom.

Efforts to clear the runways at Gatwick overnight failed in the face of repeated falls of fresh snow and there will now be no flights in or out until at least 6am tomorrow.

Eurostar services, which caused national controversy when they failed in February last year, are also delayed by an hour because of snow in northern France as well as the UK, while scores of other trains have been cancelled. Major disruption is affecting timetables in Scotland and down the east coast of England, as well as commuter services in London – where two trains were stuck for five hours last night after points froze.

Motorways are also in trouble, with the Forth road bridge and Dartford crossing both closed, part of the M3 shut and the A1 northbound at Catterick in North Yorkshire blocked by two jackknifed lorries. There are also major delays on the M1 in Derbyshire and the M25 London Orbital in Kent and Essex. Driving on the trans-Pennine M62 is described as "difficult" on the Yorkshire side.

A spokeswoman for Gatwick said: "We brought in extra people to try to clear the runway. We had a vast army of people. But as fast as they were clearing the snow, the quicker it settled again.

"We have had about 6in of snow and more is forecast, so we have taken the decision to cease flights."

Passengers already at the airport are being looked after, she said, and efforts are being made to help them with transport to return home or find hotels.

The snow is blowing in from Scandanivia, and temperatures are expected to remain frigid.  

David Price, a forecaster at the Met Office said: "It will remain bitterly cold with fresh snowfall across the majority of the country. The only areas really due to escape are the Midlands, the far south-west of England and the west and north-west of Scotland. On Friday we should expect a reprieve from the showers. However, it will remain extremely cold and the snow will be back over the weekend."

Strong Storms Surprise Metro Atlanta

A severe storm system is heading for the Carolinas and Virginia in its sights late Tuesday after it slammed into metropolitan Atlanta, damaging dozens of homes and snarling the afternoon commute.

At least 56 homes and one business in suburban Gwinnett County, Georgia, were damaged by a possible tornado, police there said. Twelve of the residences suffered major damage.  Also some businesses are reporting damage.

There were no reported injuries.

Here's a link to a video on CBS Atlanta: http://www.cbsatlanta.com/local-video/index.html?grabnetworks_video_id=4442088