The geographical location and diverse terrain of Bulgaria makes it one of the countries with the highest number of hail events in Europe.
Hail is a weather phenomenon extremely harmful to the agricultural crops.
The Bulgarian hail suppression agency was found in 1968 as a part of the Ministry of Agriculture. The Hail Suppression Agency now has protected area of 2 million hectares in the regions where hail damages have turned out to be the strongest: the districts of Vidin, Montana, Vratsa, Pleven, Pazardjik, Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Sliven and Haskovo.
The Hail Suppression Agency uses MRL-IRIS Doppler radars for monitoring the weather conditions and cloud seeding.
Real time meteorological radar information is transferred to the Ministry of Interior, Air Force, Bulgarian Air Traffic Services Authority, National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology, State Owned Enterprice “Management and Stewardship of dams” and Sofia Municipality.
Weather information
• Sliven (Staro selo)
• Plovdiv (Golyam Chardak)
• Plovdiv (Popovitsa)
• Montana (Dolno Tserovene)
• Sofia (Yarlovo) • Shumen
Weather information depending on the radar reflectivity |
|
|---|---|
5 – 15 dBZ |
Cloud boundary |
15 – 25 dBZ |
Non-precipitating clouds |
25 – 30 dBZ |
Light rain |
30 – 40 dBZ |
Light to moderate rain |
40 – 45 dBZ |
Moderate rain and probability of lightning |
45 – 50 dBZ |
Moderate to heavy rain and lightning |
50 – 55 dBZ |
Heavy rain, lightning and probability of graupel |
55 – 60 dBZ |
Very heavy rain, lightning and probability of hail |
60 – 65 dBZ |
Very heavy rain, lightning and probability of severe hail |
> 65 dBZ |
Very heavy to extremely heavy rain, lightning, severe hail |