Screendump of the newsite of the Swedish Broadcasting Company SVT, 4 January 2024

A snow storm that hit Southern Sweden, Southern Norway and Denmark on 3 January 2024, caused a massive jam on main road E22 in the Skåne region. People got stuck since lunchtime and rescue efforts were ongoing through the night.

Featured image: screendump of the news site of the Swedish Broadcasting Company SVT
in the morning of 4 January 2024

Motorists spent many many hours in their cars, between Hörby and Kristianstad, in both directions. In social and traditional media some of the unlucky ones say they have melted snow to get water.

Emergency services deployed tracked vehicles, Bandvagner, to liberate more than a hundred people from their cars. Judging the reports many motorists were ill prepared for the adversary weather conditions, lacking food, water and blankets to stay warm.

Already since yesterday, Swedish police called on all not to go onto the road unless one really needed to. Even police patrol cars got stuck on the roads. Weather alerts and problems on the road due to snow and wind are reported in about the entire southern half of the country. Further north freezing temperatures to 48.8 degrees minus (reported in Björklund near Arjeplog in the night of 3 to 4 January) causing trains and boats to stand still. In Skellefteå, in the northern part of the country, all public bus traffic was cancelled on 4 January.

The snow storm also caused problems in Denmark, with parts of Jylland and Nordsjælland meeting up to 40 centimetres of fresh snow. Also here, motorists got stuck on the roads. Danish police also warns against getting on the road.

Meteorologists say that the weather in Denmark and Southern Sweden should improve from lunchtime on 4 January, but that some parts – including the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea – will be affected until Friday at least. | © 2024 Marcel Burger, nordicreporter.com.