Snow, low temperatures in Bulgaria disrupt traffic, close schools in some districts
Bulgaria awoke on February 27 to another day of low temperatures, snow, strong wind and low visibility, with the Road Infrastructure Agency reporting that the most critically-affected areas were Dobrich, Silistra and Rousse.
All exits from Bulgaria’s Danubian city of Rousse were closed, except for the road to Sofia, which was open to cars. Municipal authorities said on the morning of February 27 that it was expected that within a few hours, it would be open to all vehicles.
The Danube Bridge border checkpoint was closed.
Elsewhere, the Kulata border checkpoint with Greece was open, after being closed for about eight hours on February 26 at the request of Greek authorities because of severe winter weather conditions in that country.
On all Bulgaria’s motorways, heavy goods vehicles were being allowed to travel, after restrictions in some places the previous day. Traffic was again allowed to the Karnobat – Bourgas stretch of Trakiya Motorway, after restrictions were ordered on February 26. Traffic also was allowed on the Shoumen -Varna road.
In Petrich, schools were ordered closed on February 27.
Schools in the municipalities of Vratsa, Dobrich and Loznitsa were ordered closed on February 27 and 28.
Schools were closed to March 1 inclusive in five municipalities in the Smolyan district: Smolyan, Dospat, Borino, Banite and Madan.
Bulgarian media reported that dozens of Bulgarians had been stranded in the Romanian city of Timisoara after a Ryanair flight from London that had been meant to land in Plovdiv on the afternoon of February 26 was diverted.
On February 27, every district in Bulgaria except Blagoevgrad was subject to the “Code Yellow” warning of potentially dangerous weather, because of low temperatures.