Serbia this week: Snowdrifts, landslides, gale force winds

Serbia this week: Snowdrifts, landslides, gale force winds

Dobrica Damnjanovic of the Geological Institute told public broadcaster RTS that landslides have always been a threat after precipitation, especially in early beginning of spring, and that they put roads, houses and infrastructure at danger.

When it comes to the Gocanica village near Kraljevo, Damnjanovic pointed out that it was important to prevent water from entering the inside of the landslide by creating canals that would collect the surface water. As he added, this landslide needs to be drained, otherwise it will continue to move and threaten structures nearby.

According to Damnjanovic, the whole of Serbia south of the Sava and the Danube rivers is threatened by this geological phenomenon. Often landslides occur around Mt. Kopaonik, while some well known cases have happened in previous years were in the Belgrade municipality of Obrenovac, as well as in Lajkovac, Osecina, Bajina Bašta, Krupanj, Valjevo - all in western Serbia. Meanwhile on Tuesday, as the winter weather continues to ravage most of Serbia, suspected gale force winds flipped a rig truck on its side in the north of the country, east of the town of Zrenjnin. Another truck skidded off the road near Perlez, also due to the strong winds, the website Vojvodinameteo is reporting today.

"Strong side winds caused rigs to overturn in several places in Banat, while snowdrifts are blocking the roads in the vicinity of Baranda, Sakul and Opovo. The conditions for driving are significantly more difficult on the Belgrade-Zrenjanin route," says Vojvodinameteo.

Significantly warmer weather is expected in Serbia for the weekend, that will cause the snow to thaw. On Saturday, the temperatures are expected to climb all the way up to 11 degrees Celsius.

But at the beginning of next week, the temperatures will once again start to gradually decline.