Weird World News: Weather warnings of Europeans acting strange due to cold

PHUKET: While bitter weather blots Europe, the heat wave continues to stifle here in Phuket. This week’s Weird World News round-up is homage to those suffering the onslaught of the cold-snap in Europe, and ways weather can make people muddle words.

Swede survives two months in a snowed-in car

A SWEDISH man was found alive after being trapped in his snowed-in car for two months in a remote area of the country.

The 45-year-old was found emaciated and very weak last Friday, Reuters reported.

The man, from the warmer climes of the southern parts of the country, was discovered by snowmobilers not far from the northern city of Umea.

Thinking they had found an old car wreck, the snowmobilers were amazed to see movement inside the car.

The trapped man was wrapped up in a sleeping bag and had not eaten food for two months. He survived by eating snow.

The man is recovering at Umea University Hospital. Doctors said humans can normally survive four weeks without food, but because of the man’s decreased body temperature he probably went into a state of “human hibernation”.

“A bit like a bear that hibernates”, one physician said.

It is still unknown why the southern Swede ended up trapped on a remote road in the north of the country.

Homeless told to ‘stay indoors’ in France

A FRENCH health minister made a bungle this week by advising homeless people to “stay indoors” to avoid the ice-cold weather holding much of Europe at mercy.

Junior minister Nora Berra wrote on her blog that toddlers, old people, the sick and homeless should all “avoid going outside”, as they were particularly vulnerable to the cold snap.

Her words caused quite a stir in the French media, and Twitter was alive with the mocking sound of thousands of Tweets within hours of her post.

Reuters reported that hundreds of people, many of them homeless, have died in recent weeks across Europe as temperatures dropped to –20?C. Many French cities are putting on extra night shelters for homeless people.

Berra updated her blog shortly after her bungle, Tweeting: “There are some subjects that lend themselves badly to irony.”

Weatherman’s sorry slip of the tongue

A BBC weatherman on live TV this week let slip the C-word in his report.

Alex Deakin, 37, said calmly that there would be “bucketloads of c###” instead of “sunshine” during his weather round-up.

He was supposed to say “sunshine over central and eastern areas”, the Telegraph reported, but that’s not what came out of his mouth.

Here’s what he said: “By and large it’s simply and lovely winter’s day tomorrow, bucketloads of c###, errr, sunshine across central and eastern areas”.

Click here to see the video

Deakin later Tweeted: “The less said the better about that broadcast.”

Remember to tune in next week for more of the Phuket Gazette‘s Weird World News round-up.

— Fraser Morton