Bulgaria’s warm weather: Just one mountain resort’s ski zone still open
Bulgaria’s mountain resort of Bansko is the country’s only ski destination still continuing its season, after Borovets and Pamporovo ended their seasons early because of this year’s warm spring weather.
Borovets and Pamporovo terminated their seasons on April 3, in spite of earlier intentions to continue until about April 14.
Pamporovo’s official website said: “We say ciao to winter, but not goodbye, the summer season is ahead”.
Borovets’s website said: “Despite our overwhelming desire, the high temperatures are preventing the ski zone from staying open. See you in the summer in Borovets”.
Vitosha, on the outskirts of capital city Sofia, ended its season on March 30.
Bansko, which on March 30 was the scene of the Retro Bansko Ski Day (video at this link), is to continue its season until closing day on April 14.
According to Bansko’s website, as of April 7, snow cover on Banderishka Polyana was 30cm, and higher up, at Todorka, 140cm. Video: The April 7 Snow Report from Bansko Blog.
From April 9, the forecast for Bansko is for dry weather, with daily maximum temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius. For April 14, the forecast is for partly cloudy weather, with a minimum temperature of 7 deg C and a maximum 23 deg C.
An analysis by Bulgaria’s weather bureau said of astronomical winter 2023/24: “This was another very warm winter after the cold winter of 2017.
“It was similarly warm as the winter of 2022–2023, but with lower seasonal amounts of precipitation – below 80 per cent of the climate norm in most of the country. Average seasonal temperatures in the non-mountainous part of the country were above the climatic norm.”
The weather bureau said that all three winter months were relatively warm, with the warmest being February, which was also one of the warmest February months in Bulgaria since 1930.
Precipitation in February 2024 was 50 per cent below the climatic norm in most of the country.
“To a large extent, this also defines the whole winter as relatively dry,” the weather bureau said.
March 2024 was as warm as March 2023, it said.
(Photo: Lance Nelson of Bansko App)
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