Weather forecasts prepared by the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) several times a day may be suspended due to lack of financing and state budget cuts.

BAS Chair Nikola Sabotinov, reiterating a warning from October 2011, announces that he had once again asked Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, for help and is insisting on a personal meeting with him.

Meanwhile, the BAS management has promised to conduct a financial analysis on the activities of the Institute to find out if there are any possibilities remaining to cut on expenses. It will also seek additional funding from those who are using the weather updates.

"Everyone wants economic effectiveness, but every dollar invested in weather forecasts yields profits which are 8 times higher," Sabotinov says.

Back in October, Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, stirred new outrage among BAS employees when he said he did not care if weather forecasts would be suspended because "Bulgaria can also get them from CNN." In addition to anger, these words triggered wide-spread ridicule with researchers and weather people countering that CNN gets these forecasts from the national weather services of each country.

The BAS Geophysical Institute is plagued by the same financial worries, meaning that seismic activity monitoring on the territory of the country could also be discontinued.

BAS' budget for 2010 and 2011 was slashed by some 40%, which caused massive protests of BAS researchers and university professors.