Bulgaria’s first snow: more traffic disruptions and blackouts
After two days of intermittent snowfall, new reports of traffic disruptions and villages without power in Bulgaria emerged on November 28.
The worst traffic disruption happened on the Rousse-Byala road overnight, where hundreds of cars and lorries had been blocked for nearly six hours because the road was blocked by heavy snow.
Although the road had been cleared for traffic at about 2am, the repercussions included a long queue of lorries at the Danube Bridge between Rousse on the Bulgarian bank and Giurgiu in Romania.
Weather conditions slowed down the traffic over the bridge, with the queue on the Bulgarian bank reaching five km during the afternoon of November 28.
Although most rural areas left without electricity in northwestern Bulgaria on November 27 had been reconnected to the grid, a further 81 villages in the north and northeast of the country suffered from power failure.
The electricity distribution company servicing the region, Czech firm Energo-Pro, said that it was working on repairs and expected to restore power to most areas affected by blackouts by the evening of November 28.
The weather forecast in Bulgaria for the next several days predicts somewhat warmer weather, but another cold front and snow is expected to hit Bulgaria next week.
Overall, the month of December is expected to be slightly cooler this year than on average, with plenty of snow, including before and during the festive season at the end of the month, Krassimir Stoev of the national meteorology institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences said, as quoted by Bulgarian media.
(Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)
