The calendar says spring has come but it's actually more like winter, as most of Romania is fighting heavy snow and blizzard
On March 23, 2018, on World Meteorological Day, more than half of Romania was under weather alerts for heavy snow, blizzard and low visibility. The World Meteorological Organization has already warned over the effects of climate change, such as blizzards and very low temperatures, tropical cyclones, heat waves and drought. According to the meteorological calendar, spring begins on March 1st , and if we go by the astronomical calendar, it starts on March 20.
Nevertheless, in the past week Romania has been under yellow and orange code alerts for snow, blizzard and flooding and has also been affected by freezing rain, which produced glaze ice on roads and railways, hampering traffic. On Friday, traffic on the southern Romanian motorways was affected by blizzard and low visibility. Traffic was also disrupted on several national and county roads in the same area, where entire road sections had to be closed because of the blizzard, heavy snow and fallen trees. Also, dozens of trains were cancelled. The bad weather caused schools and kindergartens to close down on Friday in the capital Bucharest and in several counties in the south. Over 13 thousand policemen, firelighters and gendarmes are ready to intervene if case of emergency.
Here is the Interior Minister Carmen Dan: "I have called on the citizens to comply with the authorities' recommendations and not venture into the roads closed due to blizzard and snow, given that rescue operations are restricted to the rescuers' action area and the fact that by doing that they would put the very life of their rescuers in danger."
In turn, the Health Minister Sorina Pintea has called on the public health departments to be ready to cope with the special situations that may emerge under bad weather conditions. The bad weather will stay until the end of the week and will mostly affect southeastern Romania, where the strong wind will amplify the cold, says Elena Mateescu, head of the National Meteorological Administration:
"Only on Monday and Tuesday we will see a slight increase in temperatures, of 6 to 10 degrees Celsius in most regions and 14 or 15 degrees in the south, with precipitations likely to be present in the second half of the week."
Experts with the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations have warned that after this cold snap, we should brace for another extreme weather phenomenon - flooding. The Danube's water level is on the rise, so authorities have decided to suspend ferryboat transit at the Bechet border checkpoint between Romania and Bulgaria due to the high water level and the flooding of the access way to the ferry.
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