Atmospheric sciences

Region blanketed by snow, cold snap to continue

Snow helped by strong winds blanketed most of the Western Balkans, with air temperatures dropping to below freezing and getting colder by the hour on Monday.

The cold weather is set to continue the next few days, according to forecasters.

Bulgaria's national weather service has issued a code yellow warning for snow and high winds on Monday, December 29.

Gusts of wind blowing at up to 25 m/s should be expected across the country, with blizzards and black in all but one (Blagoevgrad) of the 28 districts, the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology at the Bulgarian Academy of Science (BAS) has reported.

Bulgaria on Sunday issued a high water level warning for most rivers on its territory due to expected rain and snow.

Most affected will be the rivers in northern Bulgaria followed by those in the country's eastern regions, as well the rivers in southwestern Bulgaria, according to the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology.

Heavy snowfall in the French Alps left some 15,000 drivers stranded overnight into Dec. 28, forcing many to pass the night in their cars and prompting officials to open emergency shelters.
      

Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Gabriel Oprea has convened the National Committee for Special Emergency Situations at the Interior Ministry (MAI) headquarters on Sunday.

The National Meteorology Administration (ANM) has issued on Friday a Yellow Code warning of snows, strong wind, mixed precipitations, ice for the south, southeastern and locally central Romania, and in the Southern and Oriental Carpathians valid from December 26, 20:00 hrs until December 27, 20:00 hrs.

The unusually warm weather in Bulgaria will last throughout Christmas and the temperatures will remain spring-like, reports the bTV national channel.

The weather in the ski resorts will also be abnormally warm.

On Thursday, however, a Mediterranean cyclone will bring first rain and then snow in the weekend. Temperatures over the weekend are expected to drop below zero.

Unlike Christmas, when the weather in Bulgaria will be warm and sunny, on December 29, the winter will remind of itself, according to Petar Yankov of TV-MET.

On December 29 through the country will pass a cold front, which will bring heavy snowfall. The situation will be most serious in northern and north eastern Bulgaria, where the high winds will pile the snow on high drifts.

BELGRADE - The exhibition Fifth Report, which focuses on climate change, will open at the Gallery of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Belgrade on Tuesday, the Science Promotion Centre has stated.

Thick fog causes 19-car pileup in Macedonia (PHOTOS)

SKOPJE -- Nine people have been injured in a traffic accident near the Macedonian capital of Skopje.

A total of 19 vehicles were involved in the pileup.

The accident took place as the Skopje ring road was shrouded in thick fog.

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