There will be heavy rain with downpours that could last for several hours and cause significant problems. The area of the most intense precipitation will mainly cover the foothills of the Julian Alps, the mountainous terrain in western Slovenia and the zone extending from the Škofja Loka hills to the Savinja-Kamnik Alps. These areas were already affected by the extreme weather event in August.

He added that the Slovenian Environment Agency had decided to issue high-level warnings, with the possibility of making adjustments if necessary. The good news is that the weather is expected to calm down quickly by midday tomorrow, Gregorčič added.

Hydrologist Andrej Golob warned that heavy rains were likely to cause a rapid rise in rivers and torrential watercourses. With soils across Slovenia already thoroughly saturated and rivers already at medium to high levels following heavy rainfall on Tuesday, overnight rainfall will fall on soaked soils, run off quickly and fill riverbeds quickly.

“Most of the problems are expected from rainfall and backwater flooding, as well as the flooding of torrential streams, small rivers and tributaries of larger rivers. As areas of concern during this heavy rainfall, we would like to highlight the Vipava River basin, the Idrija-Cerkno hills, the Škofja Loka hills, and the Kamnik-Savinja Alps. In these areas, individual rivers could rise very quickly, some of them flooding on a large scale. These areas were already hardest hit by the August floods and are particularly vulnerable to this type of weather," Golob added.

In these areas, we strongly urge residents to use the day to take self-protective measures such as relocating their vehicles and securing valuable possessions. As this is another overnight event, it is of the utmost importance to be well prepared and to strictly follow the instructions given by the relevant authorities.

The Director of the Geological Survey of Slovenia, Miloš Bavec, has warned that the probability of landslides and related phenomena has increased significantly throughout the country, with the possible exception of the south-eastern region. He particularly stressed that the zones damaged by the August storms and other extreme weather events that have occurred this year were most likely to be affected again today.

The Director of the Slovenian Water Agency, Neža Kodre, has noted that restoring riverbed flow capacity is still a work in progress, with efforts focused on securing and rehabilitating the sections of levees and banks that were damaged.  These efforts will continue until the afternoon, at which time all machinery will be removed from the waterside land and endangered areas. Additionally, emergency preparedness control measures will be launched to deal with the rising water levels in the affected watercourses.

Civil Protection Commander Srečko Šestan said that an order was being formulated to improve the readiness of the entire system. This order will include a certain number of members of the Slovenian Armed Forces. The order will also recommend that municipalities or local communities specifically monitor those landslides that are already threatening buildings or important infrastructure and, if necessary, activate the alarm system.

The Director of the Slovenian Forest Service, Gregor Danev, stressed that the current weather scenario is one of the worst for Slovenia's forests, and therefore urged all residents to stay out of the forests as of this evening. He also urged all forest workers not to work in the forests tomorrow in order to minimise the risk of serious injuries and fatalities.