Harshest Winter in 31 Years for Europe AccuWeather.com (blog)
The winter of 2009-10 in Europe will make its way into the history books as being the harshest winter Britain and Western Europe has seen in the last 31 years.
The wettest summer on record in Britain was followed by a harsh winter that took lives and caused millions of dollars worth of damage, both structural and economic.
January was the eighth coldest on record and the U.K.'s worst since 1987.
Precise snowfall records are notoriously hard to find for Europe; however, record snowfall affected London and parts of Scotland this winter. In one 16-hour storm Perth, Scotland, received 13 inches of snow.
The Channel Tunnel or "Chunnel" train's lines froze due to heavy snow and cold temperatures, stranding thousands of passengers. This was the first time the tunnel faced such extreme overnight temperatures.
The tunnels opened in 1994 and the 31.4 mile undersea rail link carries millions of passengers each year. February saw a drop in passengers by almost 20 percent as people feared that it would not cope with the extremities of winter.
