The death toll in the "big freeze" hitting parts of Eastern Europe has risen to about 110, according to latest reports.
ONE News Europe correspondent Garth Bray says the toll in countries like Ukraine and Poland is rising as temperatures continue to plummet.
Overnight temperatures in Ukraine this week have been down to -33 degrees.
The record low temperatures have also caused power outages and seen authorities in some cities setting up heating shelters for the homeless, including in Ukraine where hundreds of heated tents have been put up for them.
Bray told TV ONE's Breakfast that a huge reservoir of cold air from Siberia has dropped across Europe "and been punched right the way east".
"We're starting to see the sharp edge of that front here in London. It's a beautiful crisp clear winter's day but there's a real chill," he said.
"You've had snow dusting right across places that you don't normally see at this time of year - places around Cannes on the French Riviera, palm trees covered in snow. It's just pretty unusual."
A large number of the fatalities have been homeless people.
Bray said in the post-Soviet republics like the Ukraine, authorities take a pretty hard line towards people who are out on the streets, especially if they have problems with alcohol and drugs.
The attitude of authorities in the post-Soviet republics is that being homeless is pretty much the person's own problem, and the reports are that the authorities just aren't taking enough care in those places, he said.
"In other places, like Italy, it's just so unseasonably cold, that perhaps it's caught people unawares."
Snow is expected across the UK this weekend "so we're all getting ready to wrap up," Bray said.
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