Mount Mussala on July 14, 2019.
Mount Mussala on July 14, 2019.
Snow fell on Mount Mussala, the highest peak in Bulgaria, overnight into July 14 as much of the country faced warnings of potentially hazardous weather because of forecast heavy rain and thunderstorms.

There was enough snow on the peak of Mussala, which has an altitude of 2925m, to make snowmen, reports on July 14 said.

Temperatures at the peak have fallen below zero degrees Celsius in recent days.


On Sunday morning, seven flights were diverted from Bourgas Airport, on Bulgaria's southern Black Sea coast, to Varna Airport in the north, because of bad weather, reports said.

In Shoumen, in north-eastern Bulgaria, a youth games event in which 200 scouts had been scheduled to take part was postponed because of bad weather, Bulgarian National Radio reported.

On July 13, Bulgaria declared the "Code Orange" warning of dangerous weather for 18 districts for Sunday over forecast storms, but on the morning of July 14, this was downgraded to eight districts. The lesser "Code Yellow" warning of potentially dangerous weather covered all but these eight districts.

Across much of Bulgaria on July 14, grey and rainy skies and temperatures lower than is usual for the season were not quite characteristic of a summer's day.

Bulgarian meteorologists said that by 3pm on Sunday, the heaviest rainfall had been in Sliven, 52 litres a square metre, followed by Bourgas, 34 l/sq m.