Winter hit Romania hard in the first days of January with roads closed and traffic seriously perturbed by snow and rainfalls in many parts of the country. Police advise drivers to postpone their travels on several national roads as the National Weather Administration expected a high quantity of precipitations between January 2 and January 4.

The regions of Moldavia in Eastern Romania, Dobrogea, the Southern plains as well as the Southern Carpathians were most affected by Wednesday evening. According to the Antena 3 TV news station, authorities planned the closure of the National Road 1 (DN1), linking capital Bucharest to the city of Brasov in Central Romania, for the first time in ten years on Wednesday night.

The order was considered after a bus with 40 people on board slid off the road between Brasov and the nearby resort of Poiana Brasov. Nobody was hurt in the accident.

The main problems by noon on Wednesday were found on the national road DN 67C, where 12 kilometers were blocked by the snow, between Novaci and Ranca, as well as on the national road 71, connecting Targoviste and Sinaia, where two freight trucks skid and blocked half of the road.

In the county of Buzau, over 100 villages lost power because of electricity pillars being affected by strong winds.

In Bucharest it snowed heavily on Wednesday morning before turning into rain as temperatures started to rise later in the day. Still, the usual terrible traffic in these conditions was nowhere to be seen as many city dwellers are not yet home from holidays.

There were also problems in the city of Sibiu, which is the European Cultural Capital this year. Over 20,000 people there were left without electricity on Wednesday due to heavy snowfalls.