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I landed in Amsterdam to pure chaos. Frozen, snowed-over runways. Airplanes gridlocked. Departure boards showing the word “CANCELLED” in lists that stretched the entire length of the tv monitors. The airport was not designed for snow like this. The pilot said it himself over the intercom as our plane stood there, motionless. The pilot repeated himself an hour later. Then another hour later we finally made it to the gate. I think it was an hour. I sat there in soft, blurry, jet-lagged state, thoroughly exhausted from the overnight journey from Salt Lake City, dozing in and out of consciousness. Once inside the terminal it was every man or woman for themselves…
By sheer luck I made it out of Amsterdam and arrived in Warsaw 7 hours after I was intended to be there due to a continent-wide snowstorm that hit much of the northern parts of Central Europe, from the Netherlands to Poland. The airlines lost my baggage, likely left behind in the mayhem of Amsterdam. I was tired and humbled by the whole experience. A warm bed never seemed so delightful yet so far away at the same time. When I walked out of the airport around midnight, I saw a beautiful city covered in roughly 12 inches of snow everywhere I looked. Warsaw never appeared so beautiful as it did in this very moment, totally covered in a blanket of snow on this freezing, quiet night.
Earlier this week a powerful winter storm swept across parts of Europe, delivering heavy snow to major cities that rarely see it. According to Reuters, the system, dubbed Storm Goretti, moved in from the Atlantic, spreading snow and ice across northwestern Europe. The impacts were most visible in Paris and Amsterdam, where snowfall disrupted transportation while simultaneously turning iconic landmarks into improvised winter playgrounds.
In Paris, snow coated the city by morning, a rare enough event that it quickly drew residents and visitors outdoors. The Champs de Mars, Tuileries Garden, and even the slopes of Montmartre filled with people sledding, skiing, and sliding on snow.
“It’s exceptional, it’s incredible,” Pierre, a Paris resident, told Reuters as he walked through the snow-covered city. “It’s magnificent and we’re enjoying it.”
The unusual conditions led French authorities to temporarily ban trucks and school buses from roads in a third of the country’s administrative regions, though many warnings were later lifted as conditions stabilized. Paris bus services were suspended for part of the day, while retailers reported that the wintry backdrop boosted interest ahead of the annual New Year sales.
Air travel was obviously affected. Roughly 100 flights were canceled at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport, with additional cancellations at Orly, and a similar picture in Amsterdam, showing how snowfall quickly overwhelmed the infrastructure of the lower-elevation cities that are not used to it.
Thousands Stranded at Schiphol
Far less festive scenes played out in the Netherlands, where Amsterdam Schiphol Airport became a temporary overnight shelter for more than 1,000 stranded travelers. Reuters reported that around 700 flights were canceled on Wednesday alone, marking the sixth consecutive day of weather-related disruptions at one of Europe’s busiest aviation hubs.
Airport officials described how hundreds of stranded travelers set beds both before and after security as airport staff distributed blankets, food, and drinks to passengers forced to sleep in the terminal. Dutch carrier KLM said it had been using roughly 85,000 liters of de-icing fluid for planes per day since Friday and received an emergency shipment of 100,000 liters midweek to keep operations running. Its supplier, Clariant, said it was prioritizing deliveries to the most affected airports despite logistical challenges caused by the weather.
Disruptions Ripple Across the Continent
The storm’s reach extended well beyond France and the Netherlands. Brussels Airport and Eurostar services reported delays and cancellations, while Spain saw rail lines near Madrid suspended and dozens of roads disrupted by snow and cold.
In Central and Eastern Europe, the impacts were more severe. Passengers in Knin in Southern Croatia were trapped on a train for more than 12 hours after fallen trees blocked the tracks, while parts of Bosnia and Serbia declared emergency situations due to power and water outages. Schools closed across regions of Poland, and Hungary reported delays on highways and rail networks.
While snowstorms are nothing new to Europe’s mountains, their arrival in dense urban centers continues to expose vulnerabilities in transportation systems designed for milder winters. At the same time, the scenes from Paris, with skiers gliding beneath the Eiffel Tower and sleds racing through historic gardens, give us a rare sense of novelty and joy that storms like these can sometimes bring to cities unaccustomed to deep winter conditions.
Temperatures are forecast to rise in the coming days, and airports in the region expect operations to normalize. But for a brief moment, Europe’s great cities slowed down, the air silenced, and Mother Nature arrived, unannounced, to remind us who’s really in charge.
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