Heavy snowfall struck Slovakia over the weekend

Fire fighters had to intervene 480 times overall in the all Slovak regions on Friday (30 January) and Saturday night due to heavy snowfall and adverse weather conditions. According to Zuzana Farkašová of the Fire Fighter and Emergency Corps Presidium, the situation was most critical in Banska Bystrica region, where fire fighters were called into action 173 times. In eastern Slovakia around 18,000 households were left without electric power. According to the analysis of the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute, the large snowflakes that were falling from the skies in Bratislava on Friday were caused by a high level of moisture in the air. Such phenomena are commonplace in Japan, for instance, where winter monsoons occur frequently. Up to 34 centimetres of fresh snow fell in the Bratislava borough of Koliba on Friday, which set a new record for the amount of snowfall within 12 hours.