Siberian cold snap sweeps Romania
Romania has been paralysed by frost, snow and blizzard
Roxana Vasile, 27.02.2018, 13:00
From Russia to Great Britain, Europe is shivering. The cold snap that has taken the continent in its grip on the last days of winter, dubbed “Beast from the East”, does not seem to recede. Temperatures plunged to minus 18 degrees Celsius in France, where such low real feel temperatures haven’t been registered since 2005. In neighbouring Belgium, homeless people can be detained overnight if they refuse shelter, as extremely low temperatures grip the country, and in the Italian capital city, Rome, streets have been covered by a thin layer of snow for the first time over the past six years.
Its also been reported that the Danube has frozen over along some stretches, a code red alert has been declared in Bulgaria, in two regions close to the border with Greece, and -quite surprisingly- it has snowed on the Adriatic Sea Coast, which is a rare phenomenon. Longer periods of snow have affected eastern parts of the UK and disrupted traffic in Sweden, where the car carrying Prime Minister Stefan Löfven himself was involved in a road accident in hazardous weather conditions. The Siberian cold snap sweeping Europe has already taken a toll of 10 lives, with Romania being included on this list.
A code yellow or orange alert against heavy snowfall and blizzard was issued on Tuesday, for the second day in a row, for Bucharest as well as the counties in southern and eastern Romania. For most part of the Romanian territory, meteorologists have issued a code orange alert against frost, with daily maximum temperatures being expected to reach minus 8 degrees Celsius. This is the reason why schools are still closed in Bucharest and 10 other counties. Two motorways and tens of national and county roads have been closed because of blizzard, and tens of trains have been cancelled. Trains reported delays of up to 120 minutes at the North Railway Station in Bucharest (Gara de Nord). Ports on the Black Sea and the Danube have been closed. Ferry border crossings points between Romania and Bulgaria have been closed because of gale-force wind.
Romanian meteorologists consider the possibility of extending frost alerts for the whole country until March 2, given that the cold snap does not recede, and temperatures are expected to plunge to minus 22 degrees Celsius on Thursday morning. That is why, the Romanian Health Ministry has recommended to the population these days to take the advice of medical doctors, to avoid going out in open spaces and prolonged exposure to frost, to respect hygiene regulations in order not to catch respiratory viruses, to eat high protein food, fruit and vegetables. Medical centres have been required to be ready to receive, triage (prioritise and stabilise) and admit large number of patients into hospitals, if need be, during the extreme weather conditions. (Tranlsated by D. Vijeu)
