After a longer and warmer than expected autumn, winter has arrived in Romania. The first serious snow of the season, which started falling over the weekend, blocked some sectors of the Arad – Timisoara highway, while on national roads, traffic was slowed down by the small layer of snow, up to 3 centimeters.

Snow also started falling in the capital Bucharest on Sunday night (December 9 ), with the layer of snow reaching around 15 centimeters in some areas, but without traffic problems reported so far.

In some areas of the country – such as the Timis county, the wind had created 30- to 40-centimeter snow drifts.

Yesterday afternoon (December 9 ) power went off in some 117 localities in Romania, according to supplier Electrica. The counties affected were Bistriţa-Năsăud, Sibiu, Braşov, Dâmboviţa, Buzău, Prahova, Argeş, Gorj, Mehedinţi, Hunedoara and Vâlcea. In some villages, Romanians had to use power generators in polling stations, as Romania held general elections yesterday.

While in Romania this seemed to be only the beginning of winter, elsewhere in Europe conditions were already harsher. Around 14 people are already reported dead across Europe in the last two days due to the bad weather and low temperatures. The snow layer reached half a meter in Serbia and Croatia, while 200 flights were canceled in Germany.

Serbia and Croatia seem to be among the worst affected, with roads closed, cars and buses blocked and airports closed down. In Croatia, authorities said it was the heaviest snow fall in the last 57 years.

The biggest number of victims was reported in Switzerland, where 11 people died in an avalanche.

Temperatures are low across Central and Eastern Europe – minus 20°C in Germany and minus 27°C in the Czech Republic.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: sxc.hu)