The first heavy snow of winter has caught central Europe by surprise this year as temperatures suddenly dropped 20 degrees.

After enjoying a balmy September and October, where temperatures reached 68F in places, people today woke up to up to eight inches of snow.

The change in weather has also caused problems on the roads. Black ice coupled with drivers failing to change their tyres to winter models, has led to dozens of accidents.

Parts of southern Poland were blanketed overnight in up to 20cm (8in) of snow, Slovakia saw 30cm of snow while the Czech Republic registered 10cm.

Southern Germany and Austria were also hit by the unseasonal snowfall and by black ice on the roads.

Recently in Poland temperatures were in the 20’sC (68 F), while on Wednesday they plummeted suddenly to just below freezing.

In the southern Austrian province of Carinthia, temperatures that were hovering at around 25C only a few days ago suddenly fell below freezing.

The Soelk mountain pass in southeastern Austria was closed Thursday due to snow. Closure of the pass is seen as a sure sign that winter has arrived.

The A9 motorway linking the German capital Berlin with the southern city of Munich, and the A93 that cuts across Bavaria were briefly closed to traffic, because of the weather conditions.

More than 100 road accidents were registered in Estonia, most of them caused by icy roads which took drivers by surprise.

Even in countries where it’s obligatory to have winter tyres, such as the three Baltic states in northeastern Europe, the cold snap arrived a month before the December deadline for motorists to get their winter tyres out of mothballs and put them on their vehicles.

"The high number of accidents registered in the past 24 hours shows that winter has again come unexpectedly for drivers," Riho Tanak, a traffic policeman in Estonia said.

"Although winter tyres are compulsory as of December 1, we recommend drivers change their tyres immediately because of the very changeable weather conditions."

Three staff members of a northeast Estonian prosecutor’s office were killed in a road accident Wednesday night as they left Tallinn in a heavy snowstorm, after attending a legal training meeting.

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