Paris awoke Tuesday to a blanket of snow on its famous rooftops and sites, and children whose schools couldn’t hold classes delighted in an unexpected day off. Air travelers were less happy, as heavy snowfall forced the closure of six airports in the north and west of France.

Heavy snowfall in Poland caused tailbacks stretching as far as 20 km (12.43 miles) on a motorway between the capital Warsaw and the Baltic port city of Gdansk during the night, police said on Wednesday.

Temperatures dropped to minus 12.5C (9.5F) in Norfolk overnight - while heavy snow has also hit mainland Europe.

A winter blast swept Europe, killing at least five people in France, grounding hundreds of flights, disrupting rail and road travel, and triggering floods and power outages from Britain to the Balkans.

A "bomb cyclone" is intensifying severe winter weather for millions of people across the U.S. The system is expected to knock out power and disrupt holiday travel.

Weather maps forecast up to 36 hours of heavy snow across 16 English counties from January 8, with areas including West Midlands, Yorkshire and Lancashire set to be affected

Dec 2 (Reuters) - An intensifying weather system was expected to bring heavy snow or rain to parts of the U.S. Midwest, the Appalachians and the Northeast on Tuesday, with more than 50 million Americans under a winter storm advisory. Up to a foot of snow ...