Code orange over extremely low temperatures has been declared in the western Kyustendil and Pernik regions, the National Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) announced Friday morning.

In western Bulgaria, the mercury is expected to fall anywhere from minus 18C to minus 22C.

Code orange means intense weather situations with potential damage, injuries and casualties.

A more moderate code yellow has been declared for 15 regions – Blagoevgrad, Sofia, Sofia City, Vidin, Montana, Vratsa, Pleven, Lovech, Veliko Tarnovo, Gabrovo, Ruse, Targovishte, Razgrad, Shumen and Silistra.

Code yellow means potentially dangerous weather, where the forecast is not for unusual meteorological events, but requires people to exercise caution.

The minimum temperatures will be between minus 10C and minus 15C. In the capital Sofia, the mercury will fall to the minus 15C degrees mark.

In the afternoon, the mercury will climb anywhere from minus 1C to minus 4C

Roads are being cleaned but icy and treacherous conditions are possible at many locations.

Four temperature records were registered Thursday morning by Bulgaria's national weather service, as a cold wave gripped the country.

The coldest location and one of the temperature records is the western city of Kyustendil with -19 degrees Celsius.

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