Romania is in for more extreme weather

Yellow, orange and red warnings for bad weather have been issued for some regions or even for the entire Romanian territory almost on a daily basis in recent weeks. On Tuesday alone, several yellow and orange warnings for unstable weather were issued for almost all of the country's southern regions.

In Galati, eastern Romania, a man lost his life in a thunderstorm. The bad weather has also caused material damage including in capital city Bucharest, where gale force winds knocked over trees, posts and billboards, blocking traffic and damaging vehicles.

Several bridges have been destroyed by flooding in the country's south. Rail traffic has also been disrupted by the heavy downpours which caused delays of up to 30 hours on some routes. Hundreds of households in eastern and south-eastern Romania were left without electricity on Tuesday night.

Firefighters have been deployed to towns and villages in 13 counties across the country in an attempt to remove the bad weather effects. They took action to pump water out of scores of households, yards and basements. After these extreme phenomena, Romania is bracing up for a new heatwave with temperatures above 30 degrees centigrade and almost two weeks of muggy weather in almost all its territory.

The heatwave is also affecting the whole continent. The Romanian Foreign Ministry has issued several travel alerts especially for Greece, currently facing a higher risk of forest fire, and for France, which is also bracing up for hot temperatures in most of its regions. Record highs of 39-40 degrees centigrade are to be witnessed in Germany and the heatwave is also expected to be felt in the north of the continent in countries like Sweden and Denmark.

(translated by bill)