Bad weather causes problems in Romania

Frost slowed down road traffic, several flights were cancelled and Constanţa ports were closed. Several trains on the Bucharest – Crivina route were delayed.

Poor weather conditions caused problems in Romania on Wednesday and affected the road, air, railway and maritime traffic.

According to the Infotraffic Centre, frost caused problems especially on the A2 and A1 motorways.

In the Ilfov county, at the junction point between the national road DN 2 and the Bucharest ring road two car accidents took place one after another, and the lorry traffic on the national road DN 2 was blocked.

There were problems on other national roads also, in counties such as Călăraşi, Suceava, Brăila, Vrancea, Iaşi and Covasna.

According to the National Meteorological Administation, in Harghita, Prahova, Dolj and Teleorman frost could set in in the following hours.

Snow spreads in more counties

Radio Romania correspondent Simona Uţă reported that on Wednesday it snowed in all the resorts on the Prahova Valley, and the snow layer reached almost four inches.

The snow clearing machines started working on the national roads DN1 and DN1A on Tuesday night.

Winter arrived in Mehedinţi also. According to Radio Romania correspondent Mihai Bădescu, it has been snowing constantly in the last few hours and the north of the county has been covered with up to six inches of snow.

The road traffic was slowed down and drivers without winter tyres or chains had to turn back.

There were problems in the Caraş-Severin county also, where four towns were left without electric power.

In Botoşani, although the snow measures less than one inch deep, authorities have been on full alert in the last few hours, according to Radio Romania correspondent Gina Poenaru.

Several snow clearing machines have already started to spread non-skid materials.

Bad weather affected the air, maritime and railway traffic also

Several flights were affected by the bad weather on Wednesday. According to the Henri Coandă Airport spokesperson, 27 Tarom flights, 6 internal and 21 external, were delayed in the morning.

Round-trip flights from Bucharest to Oradea, Satu Mare, Iaşi, Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu, Atena, Zurich, Istanbul and from Sibiu to Munchen were canceled.

Four flights that were to take off from the Băneasa Airport were cancelled, and four more have been delayed.

The Romanian Railway Company announced in the morning that 18 trains travelling between Bucharest and Crivina had had more than one hour delays due to the frost on the high-voltage lines, and that the traffic in the area had been interrupted.

There were also problems at the seaside, where according to Radio Romania correspondent Mona Constantinescu, the Constanţa and Constanţa Sud ports were closed on Wednesday morning, starting with 9.00 am.

The Mangalia Port continues to be open for activity, but the port officers say that if the wind intensifies, they will stop their work at once.

The Constanţa Sud port was also closed, and the river traffic on the Danube – Black Sea Canal was obstructed.

Moldavia, Eastern Transylvania, and Northern Muntenia will be under Code Yellow for snowfalls and mixed precipitation until Thursday.

All 19 counties for which a warning has been issued have been covered in snow, and the road traffic in Southern and Eastern Romania has been slowed down by rain, strong wind and frost.

Translated by Raluca Mizdrea and Gabriela Lungu

MA Students, MTTLC, University of Bucharest