First topic message reminder :

its snowing here in Burgas, has not stopped all day.
where are you in BG &
are you having snow?

oh gosh ..it looks so pretty ...expecially the first one .....

the dog looks happy in the snow. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

varnagirl wrote:

oh gosh ..it looks so pretty ...expecially the first one .....

I understand that there has been a lot of damage and devestation along the Varna promenade and beach area
Can any body post any photo's of these area's please

Here you are Brian a bit of a video

A few photographs to go with Carmen's video.

Carmen wrote:

Here you are Brian a bit of a video

:Good post:Carmen

I heard that the Varna beach has been washed away by 5 mtr high waves. I have used the restaurants along the promenade in the past and I understand that they have all suffered from those freak waves also doing damage to the road which is now out of use

Can you please tell use all where the photo's have been taken

first lot of photos were VT ...second lot Varna.......

tonyb60 wrote:

Typical UK they had prior notice, even got the weather forecast right :Congtrats:and they still get stuck. Why!!!! We have winters every year.

The Government should force car drivers to have winter tyres and carry snow chains. This would have benefits two fold. better for the car drivers and increase in Tyre manufacturing hence more employment. Too simple.

Always amusing as an ex-pat to read that a little bit of snow causes chaos in Britain.

Text taken from today's Sofia Echo

Willowsend say's:- Britains donation £00,000, I can't see Britain (the Union) amongst the donations yet

Meanwhile, various bodies and individuals have responded to appeals for assistance, after the Bulgarian Red Cross – in co-operation with mobile operators – and public broadcaster Bulgarian National Television launched fund-raising campaigns.

The Red Cross campaign had raised more than 300 000 leva in donations to a special bank account by February 9 including donations from, among many others, the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria which gave 10 000 leva, the Chinese embassy which gave 15 000 leva, while the Bulgarian Ski Federation said that half of the ticket proceeds from the World Ski Cup competitions in Bansko would go to the Red Cross fund. The US embassy donated 100 000 leva.

By noon on February 9, the BNT campaign had raised more than 61 000 leva through a special bank account and more 70 000 leva through short text messages.

Details of how to donate to the campaigns via SMS or bank deposits may be found here.

Apparently the floods have made news on British TV. Well I'm sure the poor people struggling in the floods will appreciate that. Not seen anything from the British Council on my Facebook page. Even Poland donated sandbags and they have their own problems and also Italy of all countries. Poor Bulgaria doesn't seem to matter to Britain. Maybe I will eat my words when I go onto internet news sites.
Bulgaria always has very cold winters which many don't seem to appreciate because they arrive like swallows in the sunny weather. However, this winter is the worst for many years.
Anyone elses wood stocks getting low? We will have enough but in two months we have almost used our normal winter requirements. Mind you we left some behind for the new owners of our house and we moved at the end of October so not much time to get more organised. Thankfully our new house is warm enough with our woodburner which has a fantastic 'draw' thanks to a local who re-did our chimney.

oldun wrote:

Apparently the floods have made news on British TV. Well I'm sure the poor people struggling in the floods will appreciate that. Not seen anything from the British Council on my Facebook page. Even Poland donated sandbags and they have their own problems and also Italy of all countries. Poor Bulgaria doesn't seem to matter to Britain. Maybe I will eat my words when I go onto internet news sites.
Bulgaria always has very cold winters which many don't seem to appreciate because they arrive like swallows in the sunny weather. However, this winter is the worst for many years.
Anyone elses wood stocks getting low? We will have enough but in two months we have almost used our normal winter requirements. Mind you we left some behind for the new owners of our house and we moved at the end of October so not much time to get more organised. Thankfully our new house is warm enough with our woodburner which has a fantastic 'draw' thanks to a local who re-did our chimney.

Know how you feel about the "
Draw"
on the chimney. Ours was so badly blocked we re-built a new one. What a difference the house never seems to get below 20 Degrees at night and goes up to about 26 in day light hours. Good boiler and putting wall insulation on the house has helped no end. I think you are not alone with the low wood stocks there are quite a few of our locals getting more in.

[size=55:19ntcv05]novinite

Danube Freeze Shuts Bulgarian-Romanian Ferries

The freezing of the Danube River has terminated the operation of several ferry boat lines connecting Bulgaria and Romania, the Bulgarian Interior Ministry announced late Saturday.

Earlier on Saturday, the Bulgarian Agency for Exploration and Maintenance of the Danube River announced that the river is 100% frozen from kilometre 386 to kilometre 375, which is near Bulgaria's Silistra.

As of 5 pm on Saturday, February 11, 2012, the floating ice reached between 60% and 90% in the rest of the Bulgarian section of the Danube.

"
We expect today the freeze of the Danube in the Bulgarian section to continue upstream,"
the Agency said.

The authorities have shut temporarily the ferries between Bulgaria's Vidin and Romania's Calafat and between Bulgaria's Oryahovo and Romania's Beket.

The freezing of the Danube River has been attributed both to the low temperatures and to its record low level since the summer of 2011;
the river has thus frozen for the first time in 20 years.

[size=55:3u58uxr5]novinite

Bulgaria Braces for More Snow, Cold

Bulgaria's exceptionally cold and snowy winter weather is expected to continue on Sunday, as a number of regions have been alarmed for potential danger.

Code Yellow has been announced for a total of 17 Bulgarian regions, the country's Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology has informed.

In Northern Bulgaria, the slight danger is mainly due to the low temperatures. The regions of Vidin, Montana, Vratsa, Pleven, Gabrovo and Lovech will also witness snowfalls.

Code Yellow for heavy snowfalls has been announced in the Southern Bulgarian regions of Pernik, Sofia, Kyustendil and Smolyan.

The Lyulin, Trakiya, Hemus and Maritsa highways have been reported wet.

[size=55:32rreb24]novinite

Bulgaria Gripped by New Heavy Snowfall

A new heavy snowfall has gripped Bulgaria at the start of the week, accompanied by strong winds in western and northern Bulgaria.

The mercury is expected to go up briefly on Monday with the maximum temperatures from minus 4 degrees C in north-western Bulgaria to plus 5 C in the south-eastern regions. In Sofia, the maximum will be minus 5 C.

Code orange over snow and low temperatures is effective for all but 5 Bulgarian regions, the National Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) has announced.

Code orange means intense weather situations with potential damage, injuries and casualties.

A more moderate code yellow has been issued for the regions of Blagoevgrad, Haskovo, Yambol, Burgas and Varna. Code yellow means potentially dangerous weather, where the forecast is not for unusual meteorological events, but requires people to exercise caution.

Roads across the country are reported as passable under winter weather conditions - treacherous with snowdrifts and ice at spots. The road between Sofia and the western city of Kyustendil is closed over an avalanche and vehicles are detoured.

Tractor trailers over 10 tons are banned in a number of mountain passes;
tire chains are required in these areas as well.

The situation in southern and south-eastern Bulgaria, which was the most affected by deadly floods, remains complicated. The municipalities of Harmanli, Svilengrad and Lyubimets are still under emergency situation and rescue and rebuilding effort there is ongoing.

Army servicemen are delivering drinking water to villages in the area and the dikes near the Maritsa River in the vicinity of Svilengrad on the Bulgarian-Turkish border are being reconstructed.

The water level at dams across the country is reported as normal and there are no overflowing ones. Those which are potentially dangerous for floods have their valves ready to be open to let water out and are being monitored round the clock.

In the capital Sofia, public transportation is running with delays and there are huge traffic jams at some key locations and main thoroughfares such as the boulevards "
Alexander Malinov,"
Tsarigradsko Shosse,"
"
Slivnitsa,"
"
Bulgaria"
and the intersection at the Sofia University.

Buses are running up to 15 minutes late;
trams – 5 to 10 minutes, and trolleys up to 10 minutes.

The City Hall's services have cleaned several times already the main roads and those used by public transportation. Some streets will be closed for traffic in order to be cleaned.

Drivers are asked to exercise extreme caution;
have their auto mobiles equipped for winter weather;
observe distance and park only on designated spots in order to not impede the work of snowploughs.

Sofia International Airport is open, but flights are experiencing some delays of up to 15-20 minutes for the cleaning of the runways.

About 90 homeless people have been taken to the City Hall shelters overnight.

we must be lucky just now in the east, a big thaw going on at the moment, hope it stays that way. :Great:it has been a severe snap and some regions have suffered terrible devastation, awful really.