Wacky weather dispels Euro summer

Snowball fights in July. Mulled wine instead of wine coolers. Thermostats set on high. Spring has come and gone, fall approaches – and Europeans from Oslo to Budapest are still waiting for the summer.

Much of Europe woke up to yet another day of chilly temperatures and rain yesterday, adding to the weeks of miserable weather gripping Europe from Scandinavia down to parts of the Balkans.

And this in a continent that had feared a recurrence of last summer’s heat wave, which killed thousands.

This year’s May was fitful, and June promised a summer that could go either way. But except for southern Europe, July has been wet and glacial.

On many days, temperatures have been half that of last year, when the mercury sat at 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) or higher for weeks, resulting in overcrowded swimming pools, record ice cream sales, and stores emptied of fans and air conditioners.

Meteorologists say the comparison with last summer is misleading because it was unusually hot and dry in much of Europe.

“It’s a little cooler than it should be but it’s not too bad,” said Vienna weatherman Ernst Rudel of the past few weeks, describing the rains sweeping Austria this summer as ”a little more precipitation than normal”.

But the wacky weather has in some areas led to virtual winter in July.

Instead of hiking, tourists in Germany’s Bavarian Alps have worked up a sweat with snowball fights and sleigh rides after heavy snowfalls that dusted peaks - and in some cases valleys under 2,000 meters (6,500 feet).

In central Germany’s Thuringia forest, guests recently gathered for an open-air theatre performance clasped icy fingers around cups of mulled wine usually served at winter apres-ski parties.

Apparently it’s no attraction: Stefanie Loeser of the nearby regional tourist office in Erfurt said frosty temperatures and two weeks of rain have hit tourism hard.

Persistent rain also left parts of Scandinavia gasping for relief.

In Denmark, the average precipitation for June was three inches, a third above normal, while more rain fell last weekend in the southern Swedish province of Smaaland than the normal amount for all of July – up to 5.2 inches in some places.

Swedish ice cream producer Ingemar Folkeson said he was considering laying off nine of his 46 workers because of a drop in demand. Lars Fenner, managing director for Nestle in Denmark, said his company’s ice cream sales were 10% to 15% below normal.

In France, where 15,000 people – most of them elderly – died from last year’s heat wave, the government has spent €66.4m to hire summer staff and install air conditioners at retirement homes, a Health Ministry official said.

But so far this summer, weather in the Paris area has been mostly chilly and overcast, while the sun down south has been seasonal but nothing like the scorching 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) heat of last year.

In Vienna, the ducks paddling round a pond in Vienna’s Prater green belt area didn’t seem to mind another day of rain and cold yesterday.

But sidewalk café tables and outdoor pools were again empty. Rain-slicked streets glistened and for Hubert Pichler, who runs a roller coaster and rents bikes in the nearby Prater amusement park, the wet spelled another day of business down the drain.

“I already made 10% less business in May and in June I was down almost 30%,” Pichler said. ”We’ve only had three days of real summer this year – that’s a bit heavy.”

Hubert Teubenbacher, in charge of Vienna’s outdoor pools, said attendance was down 70% over last year with only 304,565 visitors up to June compared to 1,052,680 the same time last year.

“We are hoping for a nice August,” he said.

Still, every cloud has a silver lining.

Angela Steinkellner, who runs an indoor pool and spa south of Vienna, said demand was up 40% for the tanning machines. Video rental store owner Georg Schneider said he was doing 30% more business than usual.

Travel agent Angelika Plotz said that unlike last year, she was fully booked for the rest of the month for Greece, Spain and most other points south.

“They just want to flee,” she said of her clients. “The weather is so depressing!”