The hot weather causes chaos across the region, and snow also closes highways and halts trains.
Thousands of homes in Bosnia and Herzegovina were without power due to snow and strong winds that also caused traffic chaos in neighboring Croatia and Serbia.
“Despite efforts and hard work to correct the faults, the electrical situation worsened. Currently, 127,000 meters are without power,” Elektroprivreda BiH said on Tuesday.
Elektrokrajina, which covers the municipalities of Bosnia's Serb entity, Republika Srpska, also announced that about 50,000 of its users were without power.
“All available teams have been deployed and have been working since morning to rectify the fault,” the company said.
In western Bosnia, a state of emergency was declared after severe weather blocked all access to and from the Drvar region, cutting off 17,000 residents.
Things are very difficult. The snow is still falling. People are missing the snow,” Jasna Pecanac, President of the Drvar Municipal Council, told reporters.
Across the Balkans, authorities issued travel warnings as snow closed some major roads. Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia banned the movement of heavy vehicles and restricted traffic on the affected roads.
The snow in some villages around Drvar was up to two meters (6.5 feet), and the storm made clearing operations very difficult. “We are asking for help in removing the snow. All the existing machines are already in the field,” said Pecanac.
Due to heavy snow, classes were canceled in primary schools in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina's second city and the capital of Republika Srpska.
A day earlier, classes were also suspended in about 70 primary and secondary schools in Una-Sana Canton in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Some parts of Bosnia also experienced a complete shutdown of the railways. The country's electricity company explained that the situation was “very difficult” in some parts of the country. Heavy, wet snow brought down distribution lines that were difficult to access, it said in a statement.
Regional broadcaster N1 said many vehicles were stuck in the snow for 10 hours in western Bosnia overnight before continuing.
In Slovenia, the search for a wounded Hungarian man who went missing in the Alps north of the capital Ljubljana, has been suspended since Sunday due to strong winds. Rescuers on Monday reached the female companion and moved her to safety.
In central Croatia, a mountain rescue team used skis early Tuesday to reach a man stuck in his car on his way to a hospital for dialysis. “We got him there in time,” rescuer Dario Cindric said.