Temperatures drop to seasonal lows in southern Germany

[senorpepr]

MUNICH, Germany (AFP) - Temperatures plummeted in southern Germany overnight to a seasonal record low of -42.7 degrees Celsius (-44.9 Fahrenheit) in the state of Bavaria, weather officials said.

The winter low was recorded at the Funtensee lake in the Berchtesgadener region near the Austrian border, at 1,600 metres (5,300 feet) altitude. Earlier, officials said the record had been broken in the same area with a chilly -39.8 degrees Celsius.

Funtensee holds the record for the all-time German low, dropping to -45.8 degrees on November 16, 2000.

Elsewhere overnight, the mercury in the town of Haidmuehle dropped to -27.1 degrees, a local seasonal record, -23.9 at the Spitzingsee lake and -20 degrees in Oberstdorf near Lake Constance, weather officials said.

Heavy snowfalls, sometimes up to 50 centimetres (20 inches) have been recorded in Germany in recent days from the Black Forest in the southwest to the eastern state of Saxony and the Ruhr region in the west.

Police said Tuesday that snow and ice had caused more than 1,500 road accidents in a 24-hour period and left traffic paralysed in several regions.