[Church:] A deadly cold snap is gripping much of Europe and it's hitting thousands of refugees especially hard. CNN's Amara Walker has the story.
[Amara Walker, Cnn Correspondent:] From the frozen streets of Warsaw all the way south to the islands of Greece, heavy snow and freezing temperatures are wreaking havoc across much of Europe. With temperatures dropping below minus 30 degrees Celsius in some spots, the extreme cold has claimed the lives of more than 30 people over the weekend. Just in Poland, 17 people died of hypothermia and according to government officials, 65 have died of cold-related causes since November. In Romania, heavy snow and high winds forced roads and rail ways to close. Dozens of villages are reported to be without power. At least four people have died there according to local media. Snowstorms paralyzed Turkey's largest city of Istanbul where heavy snow forced hundreds of flights to be canceled, leaving thousands of travelers stranded over the weekend. In Greece, even the beaches are blanketed with snow. The Arctic blast has hit refugees especially hard. Thousands are living in limbo stranded in makeshift camps like this one in Lesvos while they seek asylum or await relocation. In Serbia, hundreds of migrants wrapped in blankets lined up for a hot meal. Many are living in an abandoned warehouse with nighttime temperatures well below freezing. They have only a campfire to try to keep warm.
[Unidentified Male:] Actually, the cold is too much and last night we didn't sleep. We, all the people sitting around the fire.
[Walker:] Dozens more refugees are camped out on Serbia's border waiting for a chance to try to enter neighboring Hungary. But aid workers warn these migrants are not equipped to deal with the extreme cold.
[Unidentified Female:] Since it was minus 20 these few days it's really cold. People are suffering.
[Unidentified Male:] It's look like freezing, completely freezing especially during the night. Nobody can stay here. But we have to.
[Walker:] For many there is nowhere else to go and only more cold expected in the coming days. Amara Walker, CNN. And meteorologist Allison Chinchar joins me now in the studio. I mean, those images are just horrifying, aren't they? And more of that same weather to come.
[Allison Chinchar, Cnn Meteorologist:] That's right. Take Budapest, for example, the high temperatures will actually finally get above freezing say Thursday of this week, but it only lasts for a day or two. And then we're right back down to below freezing once we get to the weekend. So, we've got another cold snap coming which kind of adds insult to injury for a lot of those folks. So let's look at what we're going to be dealing with here. We got several systems that will be entering this region and again, a lot of the snow is going to be on top of the same areas that have already had it. We're talking Italy. We're talking Turkey. We're talking Greece, Bulgaria, a lot of these areas that have already seen snow are now going to get even more snow on top of that. Here's a look at the system. Again, this one especially around Turkey and Greece, notice it doesn't move very fast. That means as that snow is falling it's allowed to accumulate quite substantially because the system itself is not moving very fast. So, again, widespread we're talking maybe about 10 centimeters, but there will be several pockets that pickup in excess of 20 centimeters of snow. And, again, this is on top of what they've already had. Now, in the western region of the United States we're also watching a very big system here. This one, it's come in two waves. We have the first wave that came Saturday night into early Sunday and wrapped up on Monday. Now the next one, Tuesday into Wednesday. And the key thing here is what we call an atmospheric river. We just have a funnel of intense moisture that's moving in. Some of it from as far away as Hawaii. So, again, it's coming quite a bit of a distance. But that goes to show you how powerful it can be if it can make that distance and still produce some of the intense rainfall amounts and snow fall amounts that we've seen. For example, take a look, this is Truckee, California, interstate i-80 was shut down. That's a major east west thoroughfare shut down because of mud slides and unfortunately, that threat is going to continue. Look at some of this snow man. At first you think that gentleman is standing in the street. Do you realize now that's the snow that's just accumulated on top of the roof. And you have to get on there and shovel it off because more is expected. You run the risk of having some of those structures be compromised and perhaps some of those roofs caving in. Here is a look at the forecast snow and rainfall announced. Again, you can see we've already had some areas pickup 100 millimeters of rain, some areas will expect to pick up an additional 100 millimeters of rain on top of what they've already had. Now the good news is some areas of California have been in a drought. They need to see the rain. They're excited about it. The problem is the areas that will get the most rain is northern California. And unfortunately when you have drought that means the trees have been stressed for years. And so when you add heavy rain, when you add wind you get things like this. Take a look at some of these photos. This is a very famous tree, Rosemary, in California. It's in a park. You can actually drive your car underneath it. I've actually been there. But this is what it looks like now. Unfortunately, the storm took its toll. The entire tree has collapsed. They carved that hole in there, Rosemary, in the 1880s. It's been around a very long time. It's a huge tourist spot for people to get their picture taken there. And unfortunately, no more future generations will be able to be allowed to go in there.
[Church:] It's very sad, isn't it? It looks so vulnerable at the bottom bay, anyway, didn't it? It was an accident waiting to happen.
[Chinchar:] Years of drought have really stressed a lot of the trees there in general.
[Church:] Yes. All right. Yes, unfortunate there. Allison, thank you so much. I appreciate it. We'll take a quick break here, but still to come, the nominations for Britain's biggest night in film have just been announced. The leading back to contenders coming your way in just a moment.