Bulgaria issues hazardous weather warning over heavy rain in six regions
Bulgaria’s weather forecasters have issued a “Code Orange” warning of hazardous weather because of expected heavy rain and thunderstorms in six regions of the country on September 16.
The regions are Sofia district (as distinct from the capital city itself, which faces the lesser “Code Yellow” warning of potentially dangerous weather), Montana, Vratsa, Pazardzhik, Plovdiv and Smolyan.
Apart from Sofia city, a “Code Yellow” warning was issued for Vidin, Pernik, Kyustendil, Blagoevgrad, Kurdjali, Haskovo, Stara Zagora, Gabrovo, Veliko Turnovo, Lovech and Pleven regions.
Weather forecasters said that there would rain and thunder in western and central Bulgaria, with a wide range of maximum temperatures, from 18 degrees Celsius in the north-west to 27 degrees in the north-east and in Sofia, about 19 degrees.
Rain was expected in main places overnight into September 16.
In Sofia, the Interior Ministry issued a formal warning of a storm bringing heavy rain and hail and cautioned those in the city to be careful and stay indoors.
Sofia’s mayor had asked teams from the Sofia Inspectorate, emergency teams, the water utility, cleaning companies and district administrations to be ready to deal with problems because of the weather.
In the early evening, reports said that the metropolitian districts of Lyulin, Nadezhda and Yasen had been affected by the storm in Sofia, with five reports of flooded houses in these neighbourhoods.
(Archive photo of the July 8 2014 hailstorm in Sofia: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)
