A strong blizzard has hit Bucharest and several counties in southern and southeastern Romania on Friday. The authorities have decided to close several important roads in the region and dozens of trains have been cancelled.

Yellow and orange warnings are currently in place, but the meteorologists also issued a red alert for six counties on Friday morning, namely Buzau, Braila, Tulcea, Constanta, Ialomita and Calarasi. In these areas, the wind will blow with up to 85 km/h, carrying the snow and reducing visibility. The alert is valid until Friday, 13:00.

Meanwhile, the bad weather has closed the A2 highway (also known as the Sun Highway), which links Bucharest to Constanta seaside resort, as well as several national roads in Buzau, Vrancea, Galati, Ilfov, and Tulcea counties, and all the national roads in Braila, Calarasi, Constanta, Ialomita counties, according to information from the Romanian Police. The list of closed roads includes DN2, which connects Bucharest to Romania's Moldova region, DN3 between Bucharest and Calarasi, and DN4 from Bucharest to Oltenita. Find updated info on the traffic here (in Romanian).

Several flights from the Otopeni Airport also register delays of up to 60 minutes. However, no flight has been cancelled by the time this story was published.

Starting 01:30, all the ports in Constanta county are closed. Moreover, over 40 trains were cancelled on Friday, including trains linking Bucharest to Constanta. Find a list of cancelled trains here.

The temperatures have also dropped significantly on Friday. The meteorologists announced earlier this week that the weather would get really cold during the weekend.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Politia Romana on Facebook)