In Pictures

Gallery|Climate Crisis

The start of Europe’s winter

From frozen to flooded, the continent is seeing the extremes of weather.

Europe Weather
Frozen landscapes are dominating the weather across many parts of Europe at the moment, including Irxleben, Germany [Sean Gallup/Getty Images]
Published On 6 Dec 2016

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Much of Europe is currently in the grip of wintry conditions.

Cold weather and plenty of ice are dominating the landscape, with a healthy helping of fog in the mornings in many places as well.

In the southwest, things are rather different. Torrential downpours are in place across the Iberian Peninsula.

This triggered flooding in parts of Portugal on Saturday, which then affected southern Spain on Sunday and Monday.

The northeast part of the continent has also seen heavy downpours, but here it is snow rather than rain causing the problems.

Strong winds gusting over 60km/h brought blizzard conditions to the Russian capital, greatly reducing visibility and disrupting traffic.

Europe Weather
This is due to an area of high pressure which is keeping the weather settled. [Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters]
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Europe Weather
The cold and still conditions have also brought foggy and misty mornings, as seen here in Berlin, Germany. [Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters]
Europe Weather
The temperatures have dropped so low that locals have been able to skate on the river at Tietjerk, in the Netherlands. [Catrinus Van Der Veen/EPA]
Europe Weather
In order to make this deposit of rime ice, there was clearly a freeze in Sieversdorf, Germany. [Patrick Pleul/EPA]
Europe Weather
The weather was warmer, but very wet across the Iberian Peninsula. [Kai Foersterling/EPA]
Europe Weather
The rain was particularly heavy in southeast Spain, with flooding in many cities, including Malaga. [Daniel Perez/EPA]
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Europe Weather
A beautiful sunrise in San Sebastian, northern Spain, after the rain had cleared. [Javier Etxezarreta/EPA]
Europe Weather
While southwest Europe faced flooding, the northeast was being blanketed by thick snow. [Maxim Shemetov/Reuters]
Europe Weather
As the winds gusted over 60km/h, blizzards gripped Moscow. [Maxim Shipenkov/EPA]