Meteorology

Dreams of a white Christmas have turned into a nightmare in the northeastern U.S. city of Erie after a storm dumped a record-breaking 1.5 meters of snow in a 48-hour period, forcing officials to declare an emergency.

Hundreds of drivers have been stranded on the main Athens to Thessaloniki highway, as a snow storm hit central Greece, on Friday./ thegreekreporter

According to reports, traffic came to a standstill about 100 km north of Athens, just north of Lake Yliki.

A 14 km long jam formed, as thousands of Athenians were travelling north for the Christmas holidays.

Heavy snowfall in the mountains of the northern Peloponnese on Friday caused numerous problems on the rural road network.

On the Pounta-Kalavryta road, a tour bus carrying 34 passengers and a number of cars were forced to halt for several hours in heavy snowfall as they waited for conditions to clear and allow them to continue their journeys safely.

There will be broken clouds today, clearing to mostly sunny at places. The highs will range between 0°C to 5°C, about 1°C in Sofia, the wind will be light to moderate from west-northwest, the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (NIMH), told FOCUS News Agency The atmospheric pressure is significantly higher than the average for December.

 It will be mostly sunny over most of Bulgaria today. There will be more clouds over Northeastern Bulgaria, with some snowfall.

Several parts of northern Greece, as well as higher altitudes in the central mainland saw snowfall on Tuesday, as temperatures dropped across the country following weeks of unseasonably warm weather.

Snowfalls will resume and increase today, mainly in the southern half of Bulgaria. It will be mostly cloudy. It will snow in many areas. Only in the remote southeastern regions, it will initially rain, but the rain there will also transform into snow later.

Substantial cloudiness is expected in Bulgaria today, with snowfall mainly in the southwestern half of the country and rainfall in the southeastern regions.

A raging California wildfire powered by fierce winds grew into the third-largest in state history on Dec. 16 as forced evacuations turned neighborhoods into ghost towns and ash fell in some areas like heavy snow.

From today cold, rain and snow is coming to every part of the country. A warning yellow code for expected heavy rainfall has been announced in four districts of southern and southeastern Bulgaria, agency BGNES reported.