Weather news from Greece

[johnholmes]

Amazing so thanks for that. Possibly sea temperatures may have contributed, warmer than the N Sea anyway!

[Jo Farrow]

Snow for the Greek Islands, with Mykonos and other Cyclades, covered in winter event 'Elpis'

Snow for Greece and Islands, Mykonos and other Cyclades as winter event Elpis continues

WWW.NETWEATHER.TV

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No snow for the UK this week but in Greece and across the Greek Islands there is a blanket of white with more to come and a bitter frost as winds pickup thanks to 'Elpis'.

 

[Jo Farrow]

On 24/01/2022 at 08:39, Jo Farrow said:

Snow for the Greek Islands, with Mykonos and other Cyclades, covered in winter event 'Elpis'

Snow for Greece and Islands, Mykonos and other Cyclades as winter event Elpis continues

WWW.NETWEATHER.TV

---

No snow for the UK this week but in Greece and across the Greek Islands there is a blanket of white with more to come and a bitter frost as winds pickup thanks to 'Elpis'.

 

Heavy snow on Monday for Turkey and Greece with disruption for Athens. Flights cancelled, major roads coming to a standstill as the snow just kept on falling. 

 

[Athens Heat]

Hello all from Athens!

A few weeks ago the Greek Met community discovered a 48.8°C value registered on the 3rd of August 2021 in South Crete from a Davis met station belonging to the WeatherLink Network. This value was registered possibly due to strong foehn winds. From official stations Greece's highest T last year was 47.1°C in the Lagkadas NOA met station while Athens reached locally up to 46.1°C

The current official European record high T is 48.0°C recorded in 1977 in Athens and there is also an ongoing investigation by the WMO regarding Italy's 48.8°C last year (though seems this one will not be validated due to a faulty solar radiation shield on that met station). 

Below is the interesting discussion taking place among Greek meteo enthusiasts. Unfortunately the thread is in Greek but if you are really interested you can use google translate to check it out! It has already caught the attention of Greek Meteorologists and some believe this value might be accurate!

48.8°C σε Davis στη Νότια Κρήτη 3/8/2021. Τι πιστεύετε; - Στατιστικά και μετεωρολογικές ειδήσεις - Weather Club

WEATHER-CLUB.GR

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Καλησπέρα σε όλους. Μια καταγραφή που μας είχε ξεφύγει πέρσι είναι οι 48.8°C που σημειώθηκαν στις 3 Αυγούστου 2021 στον Davis σταθμό της WeatherLink που βρίσκεται κοντά στο χωριό Αποδούλου...

 

Mind you that this station registered a mindblowing minimum of 40.2°C. It was on that very day that the nearby official NOA station of Plakias registered Europe's record highest minimum T for August.

 

Edited July 10, 2022 by Mesogeiakos

[Summer8906]

Been in Pieria, Greece (on the slopes of Mount Olympus, not far from the city of Katerini) since June 17th.

Predominantly warm/hot and sunny as one might expect but nothing too extreme yet - hoping that continues.

Landed at Thessaloniki on June 17th to similar temps that the UK was experiencing that day, but much more thundery which much mid-level convection. A group of storms were producing much lightning to the west during the journey from the airport (this was around 2200 so after dark) and one of these moved overhead producing a spell of around 30 mins very heavy rain and much thunder.

The following day (June 18th) was cloudy and humid with mid-level cloud and some Ac cast instability, perhaps around 26 or 27C. Rain was forecast for the night but didn't happen in the end (a common pattern here). Sunday June 19th obviously featured an airmass change as it was very clear with good visibility, warm (but not excessively so) during the day but cool after dark.

Monday 20th was similar but sometime during Tues 21st an area of intense heat arrived, for the evening felt very warm indeed. Wed 22 was the peak of the heatwave with 34C temps in the city of Katerini during the morning (so peak presumably around 37C), and very humid. It also became much more hazy with poor air quality, and there were some odd circular areas of Cs which passed across from the north from time to time. Maybe these were from distant Cbs, it was so hazy that it was difficult to tell.

Thurs 23 started similarly, hot, humid and hazy but with mid level convection in evidence. This was the start of a near-continuous spell with either Cbs or lightning visible on almost every day (except the 24th) up to, and including, July 8th. During the day, banks of cloud made several attempts to move in from the north but seemed to break up. (This is another common observation here, I have frequently observed large areas of cloud to the N which move in but break up, indicating that the border area is significantly cloudier than here). There were also distant Cbs to the NE, obscured by haze. Eventually a large area of cloud did move overhead in the early evening and was accompanied by mammatus cloud. At the same time low cloud raced in from the sea; it looked like a thunderstorm was about to break. In the event however the whole lot cleared to benign, slightly cooler, still humid conditions and a sheet of Cs, by late evening.

Fri 24th was notable as the only day without signs of thundery activity in this period. It was cloudy and humid, breaking to sunny and hazy by the afternoon.

Sat 25 was sunny with relatively low humidity and a breeze for much of the day. Shade temp 28C at midday, which has been fairly typical, though the peak would presumably be a couple of degrees up on that. People talked of rain but with limited Cu development by midday, I (unwisely) doubted them. During late afternoon, however, Cbs started developing in the vicinity and while it remained dry here, thunder was heard with a storm over the peak of Olympus. This is another observation of the local climate; convection starts very late in the day, often Cbs developing after 1600 and even, in some cases, close to dark. Would be interesting to hear explanations of this!

Sun 26 was a similar sunny day with low humidity and a cooling breeze by evening. However once again Cbs developed, this time in the distance, over Halkidiki to the east (a very common location - the area E and NE of Thessaloniki seems to be quite a thunder magnet). This led to frequent lightning being observed after dark.

Mon 27 was sunny with further, less intense Cbs in a similar location in the evening. They faded away by dark so no lightning.

Tues 28 was another day which was sunny with low humidity most of the day, but once again the Cbs got going after around 7pm, again in the same kind of location as Sun/Mon. These were very electrically active with a good deal of lightning after dark. Some of this appeared to draw closer after midnight, and indeed there was a brief spell of rain in the early hours, but no thunder heard.

Wed 29 was notably clearer and felt cool in the morning, a notable breeze and very low humidity. Very sunny with no convection during the day, though the calendar day featured lightning shortly after midnight.

Thurs 30 was rather like the Monday, a little warmer, a little more humid and distant Cbs in the evening.

Friday 1 July was a bit different. Very hazy and exceedingly humid with some mid level convection in the morning. In the afternoon, thunderstorms developed over and behind Olympus, with thunder heard but no rain. It was the sort of day when a big overhead storm would have been welcomed, though! Storms cleared after dark.

Sat 2 July was hot and humid, but less hot than June 22 and less humid than July 1. Once again Cbs developed at the usual location and were rather electrically active.

Sun 3 July was notably fresher and slightly cooler. It started cloudy before becoming sunny and fresh though oddly the evening seemed to be a little more humid. More distant Cbs att the usual location.

Mon 4 July was rather humid to start, but became less so during the day. More distant Cbs in the evening, but a different focus this time, due north rather than to the NE/E. These developed late afternoon, from what I could make out.

Tues 5 was less humid and sunny during the day but featured more Cbs late in the day, both to the N and to the NE. These seemed to die back a little before re-invigorating after dark and there was much lightning to the N, NE and also to the W, somewhere behind Olympus (this seems to be a secondary favoured area of storm development; Olympus itself doesn't seem to generate storms so often).

Wed 6 was more humid but also slightly cooler. More Cbs late in the day, this time to the NE/E again. Some lightning after dark and it became generally cloudy towards midnight.

Thurs 7 featured lightning shortly after midnight IIRC, but was notably clear with low humidity, deep blue skies and something of a breeze. Notable was a backing of the wind to the NW or W, which had been more or less constantly N or NE up to this point.

Fri 8th is surely the stand-out day so far for weather activity. The morning was humid and somewhat hot, and large Cbs developed much earlier than previous days (by 1100 over Halkidiki). Winds backed further to the SW, but the conditions were a great deal more interesting than the typical drab, drizzly SW-ly day in the UK! Around 1300-1400 or so a storm developed in situ over Olympus and produced a thundery shower lasting perhaps around 15 mins. This cleared but during the mid afternoon a more prolonged storm rolled in from the west and produced torrential rain and frequent lightning for around an hour, two of the strikes quite alarmingly close. This was followed by cloudy humid weather, but then around 1930 a very low hanging dark cloud developed over the sea to the east. This seemed to be a storm developing in situ as gradually, shafts of torrential rain started appearing from its base. Thunder also started again. This seemed to then move in from the northeast and produced a lengthy spell of heavy to torrential rain. Thunder was infrequent at first and low cloud descended for a while, but then later (perhaps around 2130) as the storm was pulling away (and it seemed to move away eastwards despite moving in from the NE) it produced frequent, vivid lightning, perhaps around 5km away. It appears that a power line was struck as during this display, the power went out for around 5-10 mins. The whole lot gradually moved eastwards but vivid lightning was visible until close to midnight and a new storm seemed to clip the area to the south a little later, before dying rapidly.

Sat 9th was very different, with a cool NE wind and steady rain for much of the day, slightly drier early afternoon. Temp indicators on shops showed just 17C at midday, which would make it unusually cool; indeed one feature of the weather here (and in continental locations in general) is that the cool wet days in summer are actually as cool, in absolute terms, as equivalent days in the UK (it would be rare in the southern UK to get temps below 17C at midday in July).

Since then the weather has stabilised, with no convection in the past week. This week has featured a keen N or NW breeze but has also been very clear with good visibility. The days have been somewhat cooler than average and earlier in the week, the nights were decidedly cool. Today the wind seems to have dropped out and temps have risen to those typical of the earlier weeks, though the air is still clear and visibility good.

So a few interesting observations:

- Convection is quite frequent;

- Favoured convection spots seem to be (on the one hand) to the E and NE, behind Thessaloniki or over Halkidiki, but also (as a secondary area) somewhere behind Olympus.

- there seem to be two main variations of weather. Low humidity, clear blue skies and less hot; versus humid, hazy and hotter;

- winds from a southerly point seem to be very infrequent indeed. Heatwaves seem to be accompanied by N or NE-ly winds, somewhat unintuitively.

Edited July 15, 2022 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

An update (as I am still here):

Less "weather", so to speak, since July 9th, the emphasis has been on sunshine and (in the past week) heat, with no days with significant cloudy spells since the 9th. To be honest I'd welcome a bit more cloud and rain (and I would never say that back home!)

The week of July 10th was generally fresh with relatively cool nights, high-twenties maxima and low humidity - very nice conditions. The following weekend was a bit hotter then the beginning of the week of July 17th a bit cooler, with broken cloud about, but more humid. A few weak Cbs occurred on Sat 16th-Sun 17th far to the NE.

Last weekend had a couple of days of "silly hot" (35C or so I would guess) but this week, while a little cooler, has been noticeably humid and the nights very warm.  Day temps are not extreme this week but the nights have turned very warm this past week, despite clear skies. Often 28C at around 2200 which would presumably translate to low-twenties minima... and this is a rural town at around 300-400m altitude. The minimum for Thessaloniki Airport, at sea level is just 19c, so I'd guess the normal minimum here (at around 400m) for July is around 17C, so nights do seem to be well above average at the moment.

Lightning to the N after dark last Sunday (24th) marking the boundary, perhaps, between the silly-hot conditions and the less hot but more humid conditions of this week. No convection to speak of today but plenty of distant, rather hazy Cbs around this afternoon.

Only two rain-days this month (8th and 9th) so far, though with Cbs around today it's possible that might be added to before the end of the month. This looks below average, Thessaloniki Airport should be getting 6 to 7 for July, and here is in the shadow of Mount Olympus - and high mountains are usually rain-makers.

Edited July 28, 2022 by Summer8906

[RustyP]

Hi all from Kefalonia . This is the view due east from our balcony near skala. Looking at radar this would seem to be the anvil and western flank of the huge storm centred somewhere around Patras? That must be about 50 miles. Happy to be corrected By anyone more familiar with local conditions/geography. There’s been a line of convection over there ever since Sunday. In quiet moments I think I can hear very distant thunder. Could that be possible? 

[Athens Heat]

Greece is experiencing some very rare August rain!

Stations that nearly never get rain during August such as the Cyclades and Dodecanese Islands yesterday saw rainfall. Most notable in Santorini with 27mm, where it almost never rains during August.

The met station of Lindos in Rhodes from the National Observatory of Athens registered its first rainfall in its history during August a few hours ago with 0.4mm.

An important note on Lindos. It is currently the warmest area annually in geographical Europe with a stunning average annual temperature of around 22°C according to the official climate normals posted by the National Observatory of Athens

https://www.meteo.gr/climate/

Mind you that Lindos at 36N latitude beats even the warmest stations of the Canary islands (which are not in geographical Europe anyways) while it is also warmer year round than other much southern coastal areas such as Cairo, Tel Aviv, Port Said, Alexandria and even areas located below 30N latitude such as Nanjo and Kuningami in Okinawa or Daytona Beach in Florida!

This is due to the constant almost year round foehn winds Lindos receives as the N winds from W Rhodes move towards the SE of the island. During the summer months Lindos experiences 24/7 foehn winds due to the prevalence of the Meltemi winds in Greece. This results in average summer temperatures that are extreme by European standards. It even beats Red Sea locations such as Suez!

Edited August 24, 2022 by Athens Heat

[Athens Heat]

Due to the bad weather in Greece, it appears that the station of the National Observatory of Athens in Lindos has dropped for the first time in its meteorological history below 25.0C in August earlier today.

The new absolute minimum temperature in Lindos for August now stands at 24.2C 

The station is online from 2014

https://penteli.meteo.gr/stations/lindos/

 

Edited August 25, 2022 by Athens Heat

[karyo]

Good to see that many areas of Greece have seen some welcome rain! A valuable respite from the ever lengthening fire season.

[Don]

6 hours ago, karyo said:

Good to see that many areas of Greece have seen some welcome rain! A valuable respite from the ever lengthening fire season.

I think you had some decent rain and thunder in Brighton last night, didn't you?

[karyo]

29 minutes ago, Don said:

I think you had some decent rain and thunder in Brighton last night, didn't you?

Yes, 5am I was woken by it! It was raining for much of the morning.

Did you get any?

[Don]

19 minutes ago, karyo said:

Yes, 5am I was woken by it! It was raining for much of the morning.

Did you get any?

No, nothing here at all!

[Summer8906]

Copied this from the Summer 2022 chat as this thread has become more active.

Have been in Greece most of the summer.

As I discusssed above, July was very dry in the sense that there were just two rain-days (8th and 9th) but the rainfall on those two days was prolonged and heavy, so around 50mm may have been obtained. It was also sunny and slightly warmer than normal by day (around 32C vs a normal of around 30) but nights were unusually warm (around 22 or 23 compared to a high-teens norm).

August, usually the driest month (due, I think, to the lack of instability-creating cold pools which can occur earlier in the summer as well as in September) seems to have been unusually changeable here, with rain falling (admittedly in small amounts on some days) on the 7th, 10th-14th, 16th, and 20th-26th.

Plenty of interest for summer weather (in all its form) fans though. The first 10 days or so were mostly hot and sunny (a continuation of July) - if rather humid - perhaps around 30-32C max typically and unusually high night minima in the low twenties. As time went on, there was an increased tendency for sheets of Ac cloud to form at night, before breaking up in the morning, and there were night-time thundery showers visible from a distance on a couple of nights.

Around the 11th the first of two changeable spells arrived, with high cloud amounts and occasional thundery downpours from the evening of the 11th to the 14th, heaviest on the 14th.

Then a return to warm or hot sunny weather, the 15th being relatively fresh (max below 30C, low humidity) and sunny. The 16th was a little bit hotter and sunny most of the day but an unexpected thunderstorm developed and passed overhead in the early evening, just before sunset, with frequent cloud to cloud lightning and a strange orange colour below the cloud base (something to do with the setting sun, presumably) It appeared to be an isolated Cb but a bit mystified as to its cause as the surrounding days had little convection.

Then a brief heatwave developed, the 17th being fairly average (for here) before the 18th and 19th saw temps around 34 or 35C.

On the 20th the second changeable spell arrived, with increasing cloud (low-based, resembled a warm version of a changeable SW-ly in the UK) during the day before a Cb suddenly erupted out of nowhere around sunset over the sea (Thermaic Gulf). As it got dark this produced frequent lightning as did a back building cell which followed it. Then close to midnight, further storms some way (50km+) to the north produced cloud-ground lightning visible from a great distance.

The 21st was mostly cloudy and humid, and in the evening further storms appeared to the north towards midnight (closely resembling the previous night), along with some moderate thundery showers overhead.

Monday had a bright, humid morning with mid-level instability before storms developed over Olympus during the afternoon, though not severe. These gradually transitioned to steady rain before it finally cleared towards midnight.

Tuesday started deceptively bright and sunny, and remained so until past midday but Cbs were visible to the east over Halkidiki and around 2pm storms developed over Olympus, producing further thundery showers. These then cleared though masses of low cloud developed over the mountains in the early evening and it became still and humid. Towards dark, a more severe storm with torrential rain developed in-situ and lasted, on and off, for about an hour. It seemed to move NNE before the skies cleared by midnight - this was again deceptive.

Wednesday started with overcast skies and a storm, with audible thunder, was to the NE during the morning. The afternoon had heavy As cover before at-first steady rain developed around 7pm or so, gradually becoming heavier with a couple of torrential, almost biblical bursts at times. The rain stopped by midnight but it remained cloudy, as it did Thursday morning.

Thursday seemed quieter with mostly Ac cloud and occasional sunny intervals, and it became warm and humid in the afternoon. The evening was mostly much calmer than the previous two but around 10pm lightning became visible to the east. This slowly drew closer and around 11.45 a shelf cloud (I think) advanced dramatically from the east. Lights in the distance became gradually obscured by the wall of rain which reached here just before midnight, accompanied by C-C lightning (though I saw one C-G in the distance). The rain became lighter, then heavier again around 12.30 then I fell asleep!

14 rain-days here so far this month, comparable to an average August back home. And quite possible August will be wetter here than back home (despite reading reports of storms back home during the past week) and even possible summer as a whole may end up being wetter here (as June apparently contained a changeable spell of 10 days or so, which I caught the tail-end of). Nonetheless the rainless spell of July 10th-August 6th (28 days) is probably the longest rainless spell I've experienced in my life.

An interesting observation about the weather here is how it is frequently the "opposite" of the UK, relatively speaking. For example summer 1976 was apparently poor here, there was an extreme heatwave here last year when it was cool and wet in the UK. And this summer, the hottest weather here occurred late July, around the 21st-24th, when it was cloudy and relatively changeable back home. However here, this week (like the UK) has been changeable and thundery, and also like the UK, next week is forecast to be sunnier and more settled.

 

Edited August 26, 2022 by Summer8906

[RustyP]

Good to read of all the detail. Following my earlier post, the convection reached southern Kefalonia on Thursday morning, where we head a good (non electrified) storm for an hour or so. I Wondered how unusual this was in August, so thanks for the wider picture. Lunching in Agostoli,  there was a storm brooding over the hills most of the afternoon. All seems settled now . 

[Summer8906]

Quietened down significantly since overnight Thurs/Fri, the last three days (Fri, Sat, Sun) have all been warm but not extremely hot (29 or 30?) and also, oddly, rather humid - I'd have expected humidity to coincide with very hot temps. Mostly blue skies but visibility relatively poor, Halkidiki is visible in clear weather here but hasn't been these past three days. Evenings have been relatively cool, though warm by UK standards - for example last night was around 25C at 10-11pm, so perhaps translates to a minimum of 20C. (This compares to some nights in July and early August when 28 or 29C temps were seen at 10-11pm).

Isolated convective activity with some large Cu over Olympus, and today some large Cb around 2pm local time which produced a few rumbles of thunder - and further Cb in the distance to the N and NE so today seems more unstable than Fri or Sat. The number of days with either thunder heard, lightning seen or Cbs visible has really been quite substantial, perhaps 20-30 since late June.

Absolute maximum this summer about 35 or 36C though, and that only on a small number of days - I think I have yet to experience 38C in my lifetime, let alone 40C !

Edited August 28, 2022 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

... and another day of Cbs visible and thunder heard, though mostly sunny conditions. Hotter than of late and still humid.

[Athens Heat]

On 25/08/2022 at 17:34, Athens Heat said:

Due to the bad weather in Greece, it appears that the station of the National Observatory of Athens in Lindos has dropped for the first time in its meteorological history below 25.0C in August earlier today.

The new absolute minimum temperature in Lindos for August now stands at 24.2C 

The station is online from 2014

https://penteli.meteo.gr/stations/lindos/

 

All time low in Lindos for August was after all 24.0C  on the 27th of August.

Also August 2022 has been Greece's coldest August the past 30 years.

[Athens Heat]

On 24/08/2022 at 11:43, Athens Heat said:

Mind you that Lindos at 36N latitude beats even the warmest stations of the Canary islands (which are not in geographical Europe anyways) while it is also warmer year round than other much southern coastal areas such as Cairo, Tel Aviv, Port Said, Alexandria and even areas located below 30N latitude such as Nanjo and Kuningami in Okinawa or Daytona Beach in Florida!

This is due to the constant almost year round foehn winds Lindos receives as the N winds from W Rhodes move towards the SE of the island. During the summer months Lindos experiences 24/7 foehn winds due to the prevalence of the Meltemi winds in Greece. This results in average summer temperatures that are extreme by European standards. It even beats Red Sea locations such as Suez!

Just to add that I found suburbs even in Metropolitan Taipei that have lower average annual temperatures than Lindos!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhonghe_District#Geography_and_climate

 

Edited September 4, 2022 by Athens Heat

[Summer8906]

On 03/09/2022 at 15:01, Athens Heat said:

All time low in Lindos for August was after all 24.0C  on the 27th of August.

Also August 2022 has been Greece's coldest August the past 30 years.

Interesting. By my perception, and looking at temperature indicators on shop buildings etc, the first 10 days were hot but temperatures were predominantly moderate after that, excepting the 18th and 19th which were hot again. How does the rainfall compare historically? Seems (to me, bearing in mind I don't live here) to have been distinctly wet since around August 10th.

That said, at this location in Pieria I don't think there have been any maxima below 24 or 25C, and no evening, up to around 2300, saw temps below 21C (again basing things off shop temp indicators, lowest I've seen is 21, albeit on quite a few evenings recently). So still very warm indeed by UK standards.

Edited September 5, 2022 by Summer8906

[Athens Heat]

9 hours ago, Summer8906 said:

Interesting. By my perception, and looking at temperature indicators on shop buildings etc, the first 10 days were hot but temperatures were predominantly moderate after that, excepting the 18th and 19th which were hot again. How does the rainfall compare historically? Seems (to me, bearing in mind I don't live here) to have been distinctly wet since around August 10th.

That said, at this location in Pieria I don't think there have been any maxima below 24 or 25C, and no evening, up to around 2300, saw temps below 21C (again basing things off shop temp indicators, lowest I've seen is 21, albeit on quite a few evenings recently). So still very warm indeed by UK standards.

It was a really rainy August. Areas that have never seen rain during August did so this year. Locally in Athens there were areas with around 90mm of rain when the average is barely 5-10mm for most places. Also considerably cooler in Athens with mean maxes barely reaching 32-33C when it is usually around 34.5-35.0C

Edited September 5, 2022 by Athens Heat

[Summer8906]

17 hours ago, Athens Heat said:

It was a really rainy August. Areas that have never seen rain during August did so this year. Locally in Athens there were areas with around 90mm of rain when the average is barely 5-10mm for most places. Also considerably cooler in Athens with mean maxes barely reaching 32-33C when it is usually around 34.5-35.0C

 

Thanks. At this site in Pieria there have now been 19 days with at least some rain for the 31 day period Aug 7-Sep 6.

[Summer8906]

Looks like even Greece is going to get a serious cool-down late next week, e.g. for Katerini, Pieria, close to where I was staying, Google is suggesting 20C max, 10C min for Thurs/Fri next week. Given I never saw temps below 21C (daytime and evening) while I was there, except for one day in July when it only reached 18C under all-day rain, that's quite something!

 

 

Edited September 16, 2022 by Summer8906

[Athens Heat]

It seems that October will start very hot in Greece.

Locally it could even reach up to 38C 

[Athens Heat]

Very hot October start for Greece.

The National Observatory of Athens station in Lindos is currently at 36.1C and its only 12pm local time...

Edited October 1, 2022 by Athens Heat