“This snowfall was not expected, due to the temperatures that were verified on Wednesday night, and all of this came as a surprise to me. The decision was taken not to open the county's schools due to constraints and snow accumulation on the most diverse roads in the county, which left around 700 students without classes", António Pimentel explained to Lusa.

According to the mayor of Mogadouro, the means of civil protection that were available were activated and immediately began to clear the main accesses to places such as to the Health Center or the Continuous Care Unit.

At 09:00, the mayor said that there were "roads blocked ", adding that "an operation was already being prepared to spread rock salt throughout the municipality, in order to avoid constraints caused by the snow and the ice, mainly in the late afternoon, night and early morning, when cooling is expected”.

A Civil Protection source said that the snow, in some places, exceeded 10 centimetres in height.