Videos: ice-breakers shatter the freeze on the Danube – even Aussie media’s buzzing about it

Hungary hasn’t seen a winter this brutal in nearly 15 years – no wonder crowds spilled onto the streets during that New Year’s Eve snowstorm! Plenty of tweens and teens have never witnessed snow like this in their lives. Yet this sudden deluge of snow and bone-chilling cold has thrown real challenges at everyone.

Extreme low temperatures, lots of snow

Take snow clearance and gritting roads, for instance – it’s a forgotten art in Hungary. For almost a decade and a half, there haven’t been any major tasks like that. In recent years (with a slight exaggeration), by the time the snow ploughs rolled out, any meagre snowfall had already melted away.

Experts insist this snowfall – which should be par for the course in a typical Hungarian winter – doesn’t signal our climate’s back to normal. Climate change is barreling ahead relentlessly; we’re feeling its effects everywhere we turn. Sadly, this trend allows wild weather swings, like the present cold snap sneaking into our increasingly mild winters.

Ice-breakers shatter the freeze on the Danube

The sight of ice-breaker ships powering through the Danube is a rare thrill, few and far between. This vital waterway links Eastern and Central European nations to Western Europe, hauling millions of tonnes of goods worth billions of euros. Keeping the Danube navigable for as long as possible is crucial. Ice jams can also trigger devastating floods upstream, so these mighty vessels are heroes in averting disaster.

Even Australian media has covered their work on the Hungarian-Slovak border stretch – check out the video:

But it’s not just up north; ice-breakers are hard at work around Csepel Island too. Catch this YouTube clip showing them smashing through the ice in the Petroleum Bay and Csepel Freeport:

But not only the Danube’s surface froze. Lake Balaton has also frozen over for the first time in 9 years.