As the Beast from the East continues to grip Europe, the death toll from the extreme cold has reached 46 since last Friday, with 18 deaths in Poland alone.
On Wednesday, February 28, a total of 26 French Departments were placed on orange alert for heavy snow, including the Alpes-Maritimes, and two others for strong winds.
Burgundy and the Paris region were anticipating heavy snowfalls on Wednesday evening. The Météo France weather service has warned of difficult driving conditions in the South of France, with the bad weather slowly moving north. A low of -14.1°C was recorded at Fontainebleau on Wednesday morning.
The A9 motorway between Orange and Narbonne was closed by order of the local prefecture. By Thursday afternoon conditions in the southwest are expected to improve, with temperatures reaching 16°C in Bordeaux.
Monaco, can expect a daytime high of 9°C on Thursday and 12°C on Friday, with overnight temperatures of 2°C and 6°C. However, heavy rain and strong winds will continue to prevail.
Seven months ago, on August 1, 2017, the region was at the height of a heatwave when temperatures in the Principality reached 33°C.