WEIRD WEATHER
Strange weather continued all over Europe. In January, heavy snow fell on the Greek island of Samothraki. Giorgos Vassiloukas, a firefighter, told the press: “We have a lot of snow. It is up to 3m [10ft] high in places. And the wind is pretty strong at force 11 to 12.” It was the heaviest snowfall for 15 years. A week later it snowed on the holy city of Jerusalem. On 3 February, heavy hailstorms and rains hit the famous island of Santorini in Greece, which some believe was the inspiration for Plato’s Atlantis. Heaps of hailstones covered the streets, while torrents of water and mud rushed through villages. www.stern.de, 16 Jan; Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, 28 Jan+4 Feb 2022.
IT STINKS!
In the Cologne suburb of Hürth, people have been complaining of unpleasant smells that have been assaulting their noses for months. The stink is said to resemble “chemicals and manure” and to occur mainly in the evening. A woman said she could no longer open her windows to let in fresh air, and she and her neighbours had signed a petition