Just two days before May… and snow stopped play

People walk in chilly weather on a Paris street, April 27, 2016. [Photo by Tuo Yannan/chinadaily.com.cn]

The cold snap also gripped other European cities including Brussels, Paris and Munich.

Météo-France, a public administrative organization under the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy said on its report on April 27: "The weather this week is rather rough. A very cool air mass arrived over France, especially in the north, with showers to the north of the Loire region on Tuesday. In the Île-de-France region, heavy snow fell."

Compared with London, the cold snap was not so dramatic in Brussels. However, this April, especially in recent days, people in the European Union capital have had a chilly time, forcing them to turn up the heat at home and in the office.

On Wednesday night, the temperature fell to freezing point, while in the day it did not rise above 8C. Based on the figures given by forecasters, Wednesday was the coldest day in April in Brussels. The cold weather in Brussels is forecast to end over the weekend, heralding a warmer start to May.

Records show that the average April low in Brussels is 5 degrees, while this month preliminary forecasts indicated nearly two out of three days were colder than that historic average.