Instead of worrying about future high temperatures, the government should seriously consider investing carbon tax revenue in more secure infrastructure to help us withstand these ever increasing natural disasters.
REGIONS across Europe sustained another deluge of extreme weather over the weekend, prompting a deadly avalanche in Kosovo, snarling air and train travel, and blanketing Rome with a rare dusting of snow for the second time in a week.
In Restelica in Kosovo, an avalanche killed a couple and their 17-year-old son and left nine others missing.
Snowfall piled to nearly 60 centimetres in Montenegro's capital city of Podgorica, the most in the city since 1949.
There were widespread cancellations at Rome's Fiumicino Airport, and the Colosseum was forced to close, as it did during last weekend's storm, because of concerns that tourists might fall on icy streets. Buildings in several parts of Italy were evacuated amid fears of the structural damage the settled snow might cause.
The second winter storm in a week to batter Italy brought arctic temperatures to the north and snow as far south as Calabria, isolating remote towns in the central regions of Marche, Basilicata and Abruzzo.
Two Serie A soccer matches were postponed because of the weather.
Rome, hit last week by the worst snowstorm in 26 years, prepared for the latest blizzard by shutting schools and public offices and putting snow-removal crews in place to avoid massive traffic jams.
The snowstorms, considered to be the worst since the 1980s, have also wrought havoc on agriculture. About 100,000 tonnes of fruit, vegetables and meat, prevented from reaching markets amid the storms and cold, have been left to rot. In the town of Castelvenere a funeral was cancelled as snow blocked the arrival of a coffin at the church.
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