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They clear a fallen tree in Vidin after the storm.
Photo: Stefka Pavlova
A powerful storm with hurricane-force winds hit Northwestern Bulgaria this night. The wind gusts, which in some places reached 70 km/h, broke trees and branches in Vidin and the villages of the municipality. The Regional Directorate “Fire Safety and Protection of the Population” – Montana received 40 reports of fallen trees on the roadway. The signals are for different settlements in the entire region. In the municipality of Lom, there are fallen electric poles. The teams are working on fixing the problems. There are no reports of injured people, and the material damage is yet to be determined.
Six cars were damaged by fallen trees in Montana. At 11:30 p.m., a wind speed of over 100 meters per second knocked down trees and broke branches. The phenomenon is called a “wind wave”.
“Storm, great! Suddenly, in seconds it happened! Branches, trees began to break, I even had the feeling that something like a tornado appeared, thunder, some hellish rain for two minutes suddenly… From the village of Madan. Twelve o’clock at night – very strong. Pushed flower pots, sheet metal – I have a shed in front, they woke me up because they were fighting. I quickly closed the windows, I don’t know what happened. Then it rained,” said Montanans.
A total of 40 reports of fallen trees on the roadway have been visited by teams of the fire department in Montana and other populated areas, Commissioner Ventsislav Raykov, director of the Regional Office “Fire Safety and Protection of the Population” – Montana, announced:
“Strong hurricane force winds, gusting over 60km, maybe up to 100km at times, within 20-30 minutes and all the fire crews were out. The district has 11 crews. Each worked one – two, total 40 reports of fallen trees and branches were processed during the night, and in 6 cases cars were damaged.”
According to the police, no one was injured by the storm.
Three trees fell in different neighborhoods of Vidin after last night’s storm. The teams have been working since early this morning, said Emilian Evtimov, director of the Municipal Enterprise “Cleanliness, Landscaping and Improvement” at the Municipality of Vidin:
“We have several reports. We are currently receiving more reports and are processing them. Today I have issued an order and we have increased the working hours so that we can do as much work as possible. The damage is not very large. Mainly in the “Khimik” residential area it is a little bit more – the situation is serious, but otherwise in all other neighborhoods things are calm. We have a lot of leafy mass on the sidewalks and asphalt, branches on sidewalks and driveways… At the moment, we only have information about three (fallen trees – ed.).”
The amount of precipitation in the Northwest was between 3 and 7 liters per square meter, and 11 liters per square meter were measured in the Vidin village of Novo Selo.
A yellow code for an increased probability of local intense precipitation and thunderstorms and the possibility of hail has been issued for today by the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology for the regions of Montana, Vidin and Vratsa.
2023-07-20 15:10:00
#strong #storm #hit #Northwest
