Pedestrians try to tackle the obstacles ice presents to walking in Nagykanizsa. Budapest has seen similar conditions. (Photo: MTI/György Varga)

As if extreme cold at the beginning of the year were not enough, Hungary and its capital today are facing extreme ice coverage, making life difficult for people trying to carry on with their busy weekday lives. Hungarian media reports and social media posts reveal that the capital has been experiencing “chaos”-like conditions, seeing many accidents.

A red alert has been issued in the middle of the country due to expected severe freezing rain, accompanied by fresh amounts of snow possibly exceeding 5 cm, according to the latest reports on today’s weather. Widespread black ice is expected to stay for the rest of the day, with a number of road closures, while others will be passable only with care, weather radar AccuWeather wrote late Tuesday, based on data from the Hungarian Meteorological Service (OMSZ). 

Roads have been reported to be likely to become impassable with a high risk of drivers becoming stranded, AccuWeather said. Significant disruption to road, rail and air transport is expected, with potentially widespread and/or prolonged interruptions to power, AccuWeather added.

In apparent good news, the OMSZʼs webpage www.met.hu indicates that temperatures are about to rise drastically in the next couple of days, with temperatures in Budapest and other parts of the country as high as the 11-13 Celsius range from Friday and over the weekend. The thermometer is set to drop again next week, however.