A significant amount of snow fell during the night in most of the Czech territory. “Most in the north in the mountains, especially in the Giant Mountains and the Ore Mountains, but also in the Beskydy Mountains. In several places, there were about fifteen, but rarely over twenty centimeters of snow and outside the mountains about five or six centimeters, mostly in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands, “said Czech meteorologist Michal Žák.
“So far, the formation of snow tongues and snowdrifts is not such a big problem in the Krkonoše Mountains, but rather that it is snowing again from four o’clock and a five-centimeter layer of snow has formed on the road. All roads in the Hradec Králové part of the Giant Mountains are passable, but with increased caution, “said Lukáš Augustin, the editor of the Czech Television, in the morning.
In the Krkonoše Mountains, however, the avalanche danger increased to the second degree from a five-point scale. “There are 40 to 70 centimeters of snow on the ridges of the Giant Mountains,” said Robert Dlouhý, an avalanche specialist of the Giant Mountains Mountain Service. In the second avalanche stage, the conditions for hiking are mostly safe.
According to the meteorologist, it snowed in the morning mainly in the northern and northwestern half of Bohemia, where the snow fell relatively intensively, and further in the east of Moravia and Silesia. Fresh wind was also blowing, temperatures were still below zero.
The road from Tanvald to Poland reopened to trucks
Snow and strong wind complicated the work of road workers in the Liberec region in the morning. The problems were mainly with trucks on the climbs. During the day, however, the situation gradually began to calm down. “Now we can keep the road in a passable condition even for trucks,” said Eduard Bark from the company Silnice LK, which is in charge of road maintenance in the region.
After an agreement with the police, the road workers decided to reopen the international road I / 10 from Tanvald to Harrachov and further to Poland for freight transport over 3.5 tonnes. It has been closed due to snowfall since Tuesday morning. It is currently bare and wet after chemical treatment.
The third class road through Oldřichovské sedlo towards Raspenava and Hejnice remains closed for trucks over six tons. Drivers must use the chemically maintained road I / 13 and drive through Frýdlant. The third class road near Slunečná in the Českolipsko region, where a tree fell, is closed. Road workers still recommend packing snow chains on their way to the mountains.
In Teplice, traffic was blocked by a sunken bus
Some roads in the Ústí nad Labem region were impassable in the morning. According to the police website, this concerned the sections between Chomutov and the border crossing in the village of Hora Svatého Šebestiána and also from Loučná pod Klínovcem to Kovářská. In some places, the left lane on the D8 motorway was impassable.
Due to the glacier, drivers should also be careful between the villages of Brocno in the Litoměřice region and Chudolazy in the Mělník region. Roads are not maintained in winter.
In Teplice, on Masarykova Street, according to the police, the bus fell into a snowdrift, partially blocking the road. Two buses crashed in Chomutov on Blatenská Street. The road was passable with caution.
Snowfall on Thursday night also made traffic on the roads of the Vysočina region more difficult. In some places, trucks could not drive. Police received reports of more than 40 traffic accidents from 5 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., injuring three people. Dozens of calls from drivers from all over the region concerned complaints about poorly passable roads, said Dana Čírtková, a spokeswoman for the regional police.
On the D1 motorway, the biggest problems at night were in the direction of Prague between Humpolec and Větrný Jeníkov, where drivers stopped their trucks about three hours after midnight due to poor passability. However, according to regional police spokeswoman Dana Čírtková, this section is already fully passable.
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Trucks were also parked at the curb on the D48 motorway on the Frýdek Místek – Český Těšín route. Six trucks blocked traffic on a first-class road in the village of Vrchy in the Novojičín region. In the hill, trucks also got stuck on the road I / 37 near Trhová Kamenice in the Chrudim region. In Rybník in the Orlické Ústí region, firefighters pulled a tractor from the ditch, which was carrying about six passenger cars.
The snow covered all roads in the Pardubice region, even in the areas below. Somewhere due to the wind, snow tongues form. Due to the fallen trees, part of the third class road Letohrad – Mistrovice was closed.
On most roads in the rest of the republic, there was slush or wet but passable, but the situation required increased caution from drivers. This was the case in most of the Olomouc and Zlín regions. In the Central Bohemian Region, after chemical treatment, slush was lying on motorways and first-class roads. Cars could not be on the road between the villages of Hatě and Jelčany. “There are snowdrifts and heavy equipment is heading there,” said a regional road workers’ dispatcher.
Drivers must also be careful about icing
After the night snowfall, most of the roads in the Karlovy Vary region were passable with caution. The Jindřichovice – Háj and Přebuz – Rolava roads were closed there, and drivers would not be able to drive from Šemnice to Andělská Hora from Wednesday. In higher positions, snow tongues can form due to strong winds, road workers warn. However, roads can slip anywhere due to icing. Ice is also threatening on the roads in the Brno, Blansko and Vyškov regions.
Drivers in the Pilsen region also had to be careful about icing. Due to snowdrifts, the road from Klenčí pod Čerchovem to Postřekov in the Domažlice region was still closed, the traffic intelligence of the Directorate of Roads and Motorways informed.
The more permanent snowfall in the mountains was relatively heavy during the day, so the warning of the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute continued to apply until 6 pm on Thursday. Twelve inches of snow could fall in the mountains in twelve hours. At the same time, a fresh northwest to north wind was blowing, which led to the formation of tongues or snowdrifts.
There were thunderstorms in the Czech Republic at night
Storms also appeared in several places in the western half of the Czech Republic on Thursday night. According to the occurrence of lightning, meteorologists recorded them mainly in the Ore Mountains, but also over Prague and Pilsen. Storms in winter are rather rare and usually less flat than summer ones, said David Rýva from the radar department of the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMI).
