October 2025 in Bulgaria was the country’s rainiest October since 1930 and the coldest since 2022 inclusive, the national meteorological bureau said in a regular monthly report.
The average monthly temperatures are between 8 and 15 degrees Celsius, deviating from the monthly norm by between minus 3 and 0 degrees.
The highest measured temperature was 25.8 degrees on October 23 in Sevlievo and the lowest minimum temperature at a weather station in a settlement was minus 3.5 degrees on October 30 in Samokov.
The lowest temperature measured on a mountain peak is minus 10.1 degrees on Mount Musala also on October 30.
In Sofia, the highest measured temperature was 21.1 degrees on October 23, and the lowest, minus 1 degree on October 20.
Practically throughout the country, monthly precipitation amounts were above the climatic norm – between 108 per cent (Malko Turnovo) and 549 per cent (Obraztsov Chiflik, Ruse region) of it.
In October, intense rainfall caused a series of floods, leading to a state of emergency in some areas of the country, the report said.
The passing cyclones in the period October 2–8 caused widespread rainfall, significant in quantity along the Black Sea coast, and snow in the western and mountainous areas of Southern Bulgaria.
On October 2, the town of Tsarevo and the holiday village of Elenite were most affected by the rainfall, where buildings were flooded, roads were closed and transport was disrupted, and bridges were destroyed. Evacuations were carried out in the critically affected areas. In Elenite, the flash flood claimed four lives.
A state of emergency was declared in the municipality of Trun on October 3. Numerous trees were broken by heavy rain and wet snow. Because of broken power lines, many settlements were left without electricity for five days.
On October 8, prolonged and temporarily intense rainfall caused local flooding and landslides in the eastern and central parts of northern Bulgaria. Urban infrastructure was flooded in Varna and Rousse.
On October 27, several tram lines in Sofia were suspended due to a flooded intersection.
As a result of intense rainfall on October 3, a number of flash floods and river floods were recorded in the river catchments south of the Emine peninsula and in the coastal areas of the Southern Black Sea Coast. During the period October 9–10, as a result of prolonged and intense rainfall, flash floods and river floods were recorded mainly in the eastern part of the Danube catchment basin.
During the rest of the month, river levels in most of the country were around and above the medium water thresholds and around the low water thresholds. In the last days of October, rivers in the mountainous part of the Danube catchment basin and in the upper part of the Struma River catchment had water levels around the high water thresholds.
The significant rainfall in October, which exceeded the climatic norms by two to three times in many places in the country, kept the moisture content in the upper soil layers high and the conditions for pre-sowing tillage and sowing of winter cereals unfavourable. For this reason, in most of the country, the agrotechnical deadlines for sowing wheat were missed during the month, the report said.
(Photo: Santosh Kumar, via Wikimedia Commons)