While Nor'easter Battered New England, Great Britain Swallowed By Epic Snow, Cold

Eileen Maguire, 86, enjoys a chance to go sledding this
weekend with her grandson Jack in Ireland. Photo via
@irishmadegifts on Twitter. 

The East Coast of the United States wasn't the only place to get slammed by tremedously bad weather over the past few days.

The now-infamous "Beast From The East" also got Great Britain really bad, too, swamping England, Wales, Ireland and other places in deep snow drifts and numbing cold.

Some videos are at the bottom of this post.

At least ten people died in the cold and snow. Some of them got lost and disoriented walking in the snow.

On some roads, drivers were stuck in their vehicles for up to 15 hours, says the Guardian. Among those trapped for all those hours were 40 people on a bus, including a baby.

Drifts were so deep in so places that police made "avalanche poles" out of pipework to poke into the drifts, looking for buried cars. Up to three feet of snow fell on eastern Ireland.

The monetary disruption from the cold and snow could be so great that it could cut Great Britain's expected economic growth rate for the first quarter by half, says the BBC.

Bit snowed in around Kilkenney Ireland late last week

The cold covered much of western Europe as well. Two deaths were reported among the homeless population in Warsaw, Poland, as temperatures fell to as low as 5 above zero.

Elsewhere the cold claimed seven lives in Slovakia, six in the Czech Republic, and five each in Lithuania and France, the BBC reported. 

On tbe bright side, it was cold enough in Amsterdam, The Netherlands that scores of people were able to skate on smooth ice on the city's canals. The ice was definitely thick enough to support all the skaters.

All bad or good things must come to an end. It's warming up in Europe at the moment.

To many people's relief, the weather is warming up in England, Wales and Ireland. For the next week, London's overnight temperatures will stay above freezing while daytime highs will reach the upper 40s and low 50s. In Dublin, Ireland, daytime temperatures will also stay in the thawing 40s for the next week at least.

There are some fears that rain, combined with the melting snow, could cause some flooding.

Elsewhere, it's finally warming up, too. Warsaw, Poland should get into the low 40s and even Moscow, Russia should get into the 20s this week. Not warm, but definitely better.

Some videos from Europe's "Beast From The East."

Wexford, Ireland looking pretty snowed in with this video:



Driving was a bit of a challenge in Poringland, in northeastern England:



t wasn't just New England dealing with damaging storm surges over the past couple of days. Here's what it looked like in Wicklow, Ireland Friday: