Photo Gallery Winter Finally Arrives in Europe
After unusually mild temperatures in November, December and early January, winter weather has finally arrived in Germany.
Dark skies over Berlin: The sun shines through a curtain of clouds onto Tiergarten park in central Berlin. Cold temperatures and snow have finally hit the German capital.
But the first major nation-wide snowfall of the year caused major delays on Germany's autobahns -- in this photo the A8 near Stuttgart.
Postal worker Sandra Weisschuh battles through slush in order to get mail to residents of the German city of Ludwigsburg.
Minor traffic accidents were reported all across the country.
Stuttgart's international airport came to a standstill on Thursday morning because of snow drifts.
Chaotic roadway conditions prevailed across Germany.
In Munich, the snow even brought these heavy streetcars to a halt.
People walk behind frozen trees in the Thuringian Forest near the town of Oberhof in eastern Germany. Meteorologists predict more snow and even colder temperatures over the next days.
Clear tracks on a snow-covered autobahn near Munich.
Heavy snow falls in southern Austria disrupted road traffic and electricity. Some 300 trucks were stuck on the road overnight and 12,000 homes were cut off from power.
Two storks stand on their snow-covered nest in Strasbourg, France.
A couple uses an umbrella for protection from the heavy snowfall as they go for a walk in a forest in the city of Vitoria in northern Spain's Basque Country.
A woman carefully makes her way through the knee-high snow that has blanketed the town of Colegiata de Roncesvalles in northern Spain.
Protruding windshield wipers are the only sign here of a car that has been completely covered with snow in the Spanish town of Pajares.
Children frolick in the virgin snow in Stans, Switzerland.
Children join the king penguins at the Zurich Zoo in Switzerland as they enjoy the first snow fall of winter.
A snowplow clears the runway at Ruzyne International Airport in Prague.
Horses stand beneath a snow-covered tree in Osterley Park, London. Between one and two centimetres (0.4-0.8 inches) of snowfall in southern and eastern England marked the onset of the "real" winter after a long spell of unreasonably mild weather.
