France reports highest one-day energy use in 12 years as snow and ice blanket the country.
People in France are bundling up and EDF, the French electric company, is raking it in. Last Tuesday, the coldest day of winter in France so far this year, saw the highest one-day use of energy in France since 1997. Demand for central heating was high as the thermometer dropped to a frigid 16 degrees F (-9 C) in Paris and fell to a record -4 F (-20 C) in the Ardennes region. The French electric company registered a whopping record 91,500 megawatts of power use on Tuesday.
Tuesday was the coldest of a string of below-freezing days in France, a country not known for harsh winters. Homeless people continued their practice of camping out in the Bois de Vincennes, a forest near Paris, despite the freezing temperatures and snow. The French minister for Housing has proposed plans to force the homeless to enter social centers for the very cold nights. Several people have frozen to death from exposure since November 2008.
Snow and ice led Air France to cancel over 150 flights on Monday, leaving more than 3,000 passengers stranded overnight. Many were forced to sleep in the airport terminals as nearby Paris hotels were full. After Monday’s chaos at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle, the French capital’s major international airport, de-icing efforts meant that it was almost service as usual on Tuesday. Orly airport, on the other hand, just south of the capital and subject to the same weather conditions, reported very few cancellations and no accommodation problems for passengers.
The record cold is expected to freeze France at leat until the end of the week.
