On Thursday morning, just ten days before Easter, people in western Bulgaria, including the capital of Sofia, and the mountainous regions across the country woke up to a thin cover of fresh snow.

Traffic police inform the roads have been cleaned, but warn drivers to be cautious, especially those who have already replaced their winter tires with summer ones.

Late snow is dangerous for orchards and spring vegetables.

After the relatively high temperatures earlier this month, Bulgaria was hit on Wednesday by a wave of cooler air and rains.

The forecast is for the weather to remain colder and rainy in the next two days on the territory of the whole country except for the southeastern regions.

Lows are expected to vary between 3°C and 8°C, while highs in Northwestern Bulgaria are set from 10°C to 15°C and in the other regions between 15°C and 20°C.

The changes are attributed to a cold front bringing thunderstorms, rains and moderate to strong winds.

The rains and winds are expected to abate on Saturday and the sunshine will come out over the whole country with the mercury zooming up a notch or two, but temperatures will remain lower than the average for the season.