To Britons it's the "Beast of the East", to the Swedes the "snow cannon", while the Dutch have labelled it "The Siberian Bear".
Much of Europe is grappling with a "freak" cold snap - and scientists say it's because of climate change.
A blast of Siberian weather has sent temperatures plunging across much of Europe, carpeting palm-lined beaches in snow and prompting warnings for the homeless and elderly people.
Snow in the UK. Source: AAP
While the Arctic is seeing record high temperatures, at least 24 people have died across Europe in the past four days in a snap which has brought snow even to the balmy Mediterranean islands of Corsica and Capri.
At least five deaths were reported in Poland alone on Monday as the mercury dropped to minus 16 degrees Celsius (minus four Fahrenheit) overnight in Warsaw, bringing to 53 the number of Polish deaths from freezing since November.
What is the Arctic Blast?
Around the entire Arctic region, temperatures are now about 20C (36°F) above normal, at minus eight degrees Celsius (17.6°F), according to DMI calculations.
To the south, a rare snow storm hit Rome on Monday and some Brussels mayors planned to detain homeless overnight if they refused shelter with temperatures set to fall as low as minus 10 Celsius (14 Fahrenheit) in the coming week.
Hit by easterly winds from Siberia, cities from Warsaw to Oslo were colder than minus 8C.
As long ago as 1973, a study suggested that an ice-free Arctic Ocean could make regions further south colder.
That “warm Arctic, cold continent” (WAC#C) pattern is sometimes dubbed “wacc-y” or “wacky” among climate scientists.
“Wacky weather continues with scary strength and persistence,” tweeted Professor Lars Kaleschke, a professor at the University of Hamburg.
Versoix, on Lake Geneva Source: World Meteorological Organization
How is Europe coping?
Cities across the continent were providing emergency shelter and relief to rough sleepers, which accounted for most of the deaths since Friday, including three in France, three in the Czech Republic and one in Italy.
In Belgium, towns including Etterbeek, Verviers and Charleroi have resorted to ordering police to detain homeless people if they refuse to go to shelters.
The Red Cross, which has set up emergency teams across Europe, urged people to keep an eye on neighbours and relatives.
British Airways cancelled roughly 60 flights in and out of London Heathrow airport.
The Met Office forecaster said rural communities could be cut off for days by snowdrifts, warning of "long interruptions to power supplies and other services such as telephone and mobile phone networks."
Some of the iciest conditions were reported in Italy, where many schools and daycare centres were closed, to the consternation of parents already preparing for closures next week linked to this weekend's general election.
Heavy snow hits Italy. Source: AAP
What's causing this event?
Scientists say a long-term shrinking of sea ice on the Arctic Ocean, linked to global warming, exposes warmer water below that releases more heat into the atmosphere. That in turn may be disrupting the high altitude jet stream.
“The jet stream becomes wavier, meaning that colder air can penetrate further south and warmer air further north,” said Nalan Koc, research director of the Norwegian Polar Institute.
Arctic Ocean sea ice is at a record low for late February at 14.1 million square kilometers (5.4 million), according to the US National Snow and Ice Data Center. That is about a million less than normal, or roughly the size of Egypt.
Erik Solheim, head of the UN Environment, said the rare weather fits a wider pattern driven by a build-up of greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels from cars, factories and power plants.
“What we once considered to be anomalies are becoming the new normal. Our climate is changing right in front of our eyes, and we’ve only got a short amount of time to stop this from getting significantly worse,” he told Reuters.
Under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, almost 200 nations agreed to limit a rise in temperatures to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.5 Fahrenheit) above preindustrial times, while pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5C (2.7F).
The World Meteorological Organization said the chill in Europe was caused by a “Sudden Stratospheric Warming” above the North Pole that led to a split in the polar vortex, a cold area of air above the Arctic that spilled cold south.
A big problem in figuring out whether the Arctic warmth is driven by human activities or natural variations is a lack of measuring stations. There are no thermometers at the North Pole and satellite measurements go back only to the late 1970s.
US President Donald Trump, who plans to quit the Paris Agreement, has often expressed doubts about mainstream global warming science during cold spells, such as at New Year in the eastern United States.
And Mottram at DMI said Europe’s winters had become less severe. “It’s not actually that cold. Its just our perceptions have shifted from a normal winter.”
