Romania gripped by cold weather, snow ahead of Orthodox Easter
Romania is in the grips of weather specific to winter, such as low temperatures, blizzards and snow. These days, planes were grounded, schools shut and roads were blocked in several parts of the country due to snowfall and strong winds.
The meteorological service ANM issued orange and yellow code warnings and an information notice valid until Saturday, April 8.
“There is a cyclone formed south of the country, which brought significant amounts of precipitation, but at the same time, an atmospheric front of polar origin that brought temperature values that are currently 8-12 degrees Celsius below the multi-year averages,” Elena Mateescu, director-general of ANM, told Digi24. She added that temperatures may rise over the next week to around 14-17 degrees, but that rains will persist as well.
“We will have weather close to the thermal norm of the date for Palm Sunday, and for Easter, at this moment, temperature values are estimated to be throughout the country between 14 to 17-18 degrees, including in the capital,” said the meteorologist.
Several flights that were scheduled to depart Wednesday morning, April 5, from Iasi Airport were delayed by up to two hours due to heavy snowfall, while the road to the airport was temporarily blocked after several trees fell on the road. The flights to Paris, London, Rome, and Barcelona, which were supposed to depart between 6.00 am and 7.00 am, were delayed, according to HotNews. The director of Iași Airport, Romeo Vatră, said the airport runway has been cleared in the meantime.
Dozens of people in the same county were stranded on road DJ282 due to a blizzard. They had to wait for roughly nine hours to be rescued. "There are wind gusts of 50 kilometers per hour. The cars are in the middle of the road or on the side. We are all on the road. The only ones who have come so far have been the firefighters, who unfortunately couldn't do much. They came with a small tracked vehicle and took an injured person," one man told Euronews Romania.
36 schools in Iasi were closed either completely or partially due to the weather, according to a press release put out by the Iasi County School Inspectorate. Most of the impacted schools are in rural areas that are more isolated.
The strong wind left many localities without power and blocked ships in the Black Sea ports. Drivers who had already switched to summer tires saw their cars skid or even flip on the snow-covered roads. One person was injured in Valcea.
National Road 73A was blocked for several hours between Rajnov and Predeal. Traffic was limited to a maximum speed of 20-30 kilometers per hour on DN1.
The North Pole cyclone moving through Europe and causing the cold weather was also responsible for the Mathis storm that hit England and Western Europe.
According to meteorological estimates, the polar vortex will remain above Romania until Wednesday afternoon, unless changes occur in the movement of air masses. Between April 5 and 8, the weather will be cold for this period and it will occasionally rain. The maximum temperatures will be between 9 and 11 degrees Celsius, while the minimum temperatures will be between 1 and 3 degrees Celsius.
(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Alex Nicodim)
