On March 23, 2018, on World
\nMeteorological Day, more than half of Romania was under weather alerts for
\nheavy snow, blizzard and low visibility. The World Meteorological Organization
\nhas already warned over the effects of climate change, such as blizzards and
\nvery low temperatures, tropical cyclones, heat waves and drought. According to
\nthe meteorological calendar, spring begins on March 1st , and if we
\ngo by the astronomical calendar, it
\nstarts on March 20. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, in the past week Romania has been under
\nyellow and orange code alerts for snow, blizzard and flooding and has also been
\naffected by freezing rain, which produced glaze ice on roads and
\nrailways, hampering traffic. On Friday, traffic on the southern Romanian
\nmotorways was affected by blizzard and low visibility. Traffic was also
\ndisrupted on several national and county roads in the same area, where entire
\nroad sections had to be closed because of the blizzard, heavy snow and fallen
\ntrees. Also, dozens of trains were cancelled. The bad weather caused schools
\nand kindergartens to close down on Friday in the capital Bucharest and in
\nseveral counties in the south. Over 13 thousand policemen, firelighters and
\ngendarmes are ready to intervene if case of emergency. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Here is the Interior
\nMinister Carmen Dan: I have
\ncalled on the citizens to comply with the authorities’ recommendations and not
\nventure into the roads closed due to blizzard and snow, given that rescue
\noperations are restricted to the rescuers’ action area and the fact that by
\ndoing that they would put the very life of their rescuers in danger.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In turn, the Health Minister Sorina Pintea has called on
\nthe public health departments to be ready to cope with the special situations
\nthat may emerge under bad weather conditions. The bad weather will stay until
\nthe end of the week and will mostly affect southeastern Romania, where the
\nstrong wind will amplify the cold, says Elena Mateescu, head of the National
\nMeteorological Administration:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Only on Monday and
\nTuesday we will see a slight increase in temperatures, of 6 to 10 degrees
\nCelsius in most regions and 14 or 15 degrees in the south, with precipitations
\nlikely to be present in the second half of the week.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Experts with the General
\nInspectorate for Emergency Situations have warned that after this cold snap, we
\nshould brace for another extreme weather phenomenon – flooding. The Danube’s water level is on the rise, so
\nauthorities have decided to suspend ferryboat transit at the Bechet border
\ncheckpoint between Romania and Bulgaria due to the high water level and the
\nflooding of the access way to the ferry.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The calendar says spring has come but it’s actually more like winter, as most of Romania is fighting heavy snow and blizzard<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":71525,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[29798,33286,39261,39260,39259,35592],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-77047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-blizzard","tag-freezing-rain","tag-health-minister-sorina-pintea","tag-heavy-snow","tag-severe-weather","tag-weather-alert"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n