Fog in Sofia... (At least SOME of it is fog...)

A view of the city from the 16th floor
of the NGK building in downtown Sofia
on one of the clearer days

in my experience over four separate trips, two in early autumn, one in late spring, and another in winter, sofia suffers from horrible pollution, made much worse by inversions in cold weather... even when there are no clouds, it is sometimes hard to see across downtown from the windows of an office building... the city has tall mountains to the west, south, and east, which, while they provide shelter from prevailing winds, also means that whatever builds up in the air, stays... and, as the article says, the airport isn't equipped for instrument landings (CAT III), as it only has a CAT II capability... adding fog to that mix would make aircraft operations nearly impossible...

Unusually persistent fog has forced the cancellation of 115 flights using Sofia Airport in the past 10 days, almost severing one of Bulgaria's major transport links, officials said on Monday.

Flights to Vienna, Frankfurt and Athens were cancelled on Monday morning alone because of the fog hanging over the area, said Monika Pelinkova, spokeswoman for Sofia Airport.

"It is a force majeure situation. For each flight we decide separately," she said. "There is nothing else that can be done."

Weather forecasters said December is normally foggy in Bulgaria, but this year was worse than usual because there has been no wind, and because economic growth has resulted in worsening air pollution around the capital.

Sofia airport has undergone significant modernization over the past two years, including building a new terminal and runways, but it does not have a certified system for landing in poor visibility.

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