A Code Red weather warning was declared throughout Bulgaria by Regional Development and Public Works Minister Liliana Pavlova on January 26 2012.
 
The declaration, including a ban from the roads throughout the country of all vehicles of more than 10 tons, came as the heavy snowfall situation worsening, with snow reported to be lying two metres deep in places.
 
Earlier in the day, code orange was declared in 19 districts, after dawn found the country under a code orange hazardous weather warning in 14 districts and the rest of the country declared code yellow.

Prime Minister Boiko Borissov, Pavlova and road authorities have, through the day, repeated calls to the public not to embark on any road journeys that are not absolutely essential.

Train movement in the section between Gabrovo station and Tsareva Livada station had been cut off due to heavy snow, local news agency Focus said, quoting state railways BDZ.
 
A passenger train that had set off from Tsareva Livada to Gabrovo had got stuck between the two stations and had stayed there for about an hour. The train returned to Tsareva Livada because of deep snowdrifts.
 
Fire safety and civil defence said that states of emergency had been declared in the municipalities of Svoge, Godech and Lovech.
 
In Smolyan and Razgrad, many settlements reportedly had no electricity.
 
Electricity distribution company CEZ said that throughout its network, with the exception of Sofia, there were places with power cuts. A total of 450 emergency teams had been deployed to restore power.
 
By noon, the number of customers without electricity had been reduced to 20 000, the power utility said.
 
Electricity distribution company EVN said that there were about 500 customers without power in Smolyan, in Kurdjali about 6000 and in Pazardzhik about 6000.
 
More than 1000 road cleaning machines were at work on the country’s highways and major roads, Bulgarian-language media said.
 
Rousse was reportedly among the worst-hit places, with snowdrifts of more than a metre and roads to Sofia, Varna and Kubrat closed.
 
Earlier in the day, there was a serious collision that disrupted traffic on the Trakiya Highway near Plovdiv. According to television station bTV, the collision involved a lorry, a bus with 20 passengers and a foreign-registered car. There were no casualties but four people with slight injuries were treated in hospital and released.
 
In the capital city, Sofia mayor Yordanka Fandukova was monitoring street-clearing operations, reports said.
 
Fandukova said that companies contracted for road-cleaning were obliged to work continuously to ensure traffic flow on the main roads in the city.
 
Delays of varying lengths in public transport schedules were reported, said to average 15 minutes.
 
Fallen trees had obstructed roads on Sofia’s Vitosha mountain. Civil defence and municipal police were called out to enable people from eight ski schools travelling by bus to return to the city.
 
Emergency number 112 reported receiving several hundred calls. Priority was given to people whose lives could possibly be in danger.
 
Emergency services said that motorists who embarked on journeys should ensure that they had enough fuel and that their mobile phone batteries were fully charged.