Heat wave melts snow festival

COPENHAGEN - While most of Europe has shivered through an unusually cold March, a snow festival in Arctic Greenland has been postponed indefinitely because of a "heat wave".

The 11th annual international Snow Sculpture Festival in Nuuk was scheduled for March 18-21, when the average temperature in Greenland's capital would usually be well below freezing.

"The snow has been melting because of the mild weather and last week we had several days of rain," Nuuk Tourism manager Flemming Nicolaisen said.

The festival is a popular attraction and more than 20 teams had been scheduled to take part. Nicolaisen said the artists needed plenty of fine new snow to sculpt.

Greenland's climate is usually harsh and about 80 per cent of the semi-autonomous Danish province is covered by ice, but February brought record-high temperatures above 15 degrees centigrade.

The Danish Meteorological Institute blamed the weather on the Foehn, a warm, dry wind.

- REUTERS