76 Posts in Weather

The highest temperature deviations were observed in the region of Thessaly, the islands of the northern Aegean and in Crete, where the median monthly rates were more 2.5C higher than the normal levels for the time of year. For Thessaly, the Peloponnese, the islands of the Aegean and Crete, it was the hottest November in the last 15 years, while for Central Greece it was the second hottest (+2.1C). It is worth noting that the European record for highest November temperature was recorded in Sisi on Crete, where the maximum temperature reached 35.1C on November 4th. For Athens, the average monthly deviation of maximum temperatures was +2.2C, with 27 of the 30 days of November being warmer than normal for the time of year.

The reason for the change in weather is the southeastward movement of a disturbance in the mid-troposphere from northwestern Europe to the Mediterranean region and the development of a surface low in the central Mediterranean region. In more detail, tomorrow rains and local storms are expected from the early hours of the morning in the Ionian, Epirus, western Sterea, southern Peloponnese, Attica, Evia, Cyclades, southern Crete, the Dodecanese, the eastern and northern islands Aegean and Thrace. Also, possibly heavy rains and storms in the Dodecanese, the islands of the eastern and northeastern Aegean and the northern Ionian, where they are likely to be accompanied by significant amounts of rain. There is a slight chance of small hail in parts of the Ionian and Aegean. South-southeast winds will blow in the seas with intensities of 5-6 Beaufort and locally in the eastern and southeastern Aegean up to 7 Beaufort. Finally, there will be a significant increase in minimum temperatures of 5-7 degrees, due to the prevalence of southerly winds and the transport of warmer gas masses. The rains and storms towards the morning hours of Thursday are likely to intensify temporarily in parts of Thrace. According to the Precipitation Episode Classification (RPI), which is implemented by the Meteo Unit of the National Observatory of Athens, the precipitation episode for tomorrow is classified as Category 3 (Significant).

  A. Today Saturday (11-11-2023) heavy rains and storms are predicted: a. Until early afternoon in the northern Ionian, Epirus, western Sterea, western and southern parts of the Peloponnese, Kythira, central and eastern Macedonia and Thrace. b. In the islands of the eastern Aegean (mainly the area of Lesvos, Chios and from the afternoon Samos). c. In the Dodecanese from the evening until the morning hours of Sunday (12-11-2023). B. Winds from southern directions with an intensity of 8 Beaufort will blow locally in the Aegean until the early evening hours of Saturday (11-11-2023). C. It is pointed out that from Sunday evening (11-12-2023) a new weather system from the northwest with heavy rains and storms will initially affect western Greece and gradually on Monday (11-13-2023) eastern Macedonia, Thrace and the eastern Aegean. Specifically, they will be affected: a. From the evening hours of Sunday (12-11-2023) until the morning hours of Monday (13-11-2023) the northern Ionian and Epirus. b. From the early morning hours of Monday (13-11-2023) until noon the southern Ionian, western Sterea, western and southern Peloponnese, Kythira and possibly western Crete. c. From the midday hours of Monday (13-11-2023) until the early evening hours Thrace, the islands of the northern and eastern Aegean and possibly temporarily the Cyclades and eastern Macedonia. d. From the afternoon of Monday (13-11-2023) until late at night in the Dodecanese.  

The drought in central and eastern Macedonia and especially in the region of Thrace was classed as medium and in some locations extreme. Mild drought conditions prevailed in parts of the central and eastern Peloponnese, eastern Central Greece (including Attica), central and southern Evia as well as in some islands of the Aegean. Additionally, conditions of mild drought were observed in some parts of central and western Macedonia. Conditions of mild or medium drought were recorded in 38 percent of Greece's territory in October 2023, the Athens National Observatory's meteo.gr service reported on Tuesday. The drought in central and eastern Macedonia and especially in the region of Thrace was classed as medium and in some locations extreme. Mild drought conditions prevailed in parts of the central and eastern Peloponnese, eastern Central Greece (including Attica), central and southern Evia as well as in some islands of the Aegean. Additionally, conditions of mild drought were observed in some parts of central and western Macedonia.

According to the latest prognostic data of the National Observatory of Athens/meteo.gr, from the evening hours today, local rains are expected in the western and northern continental areas and in the Northern Ionian Sea. Gradually, by morning the local rains will spread to the rest of the country. In the western and northern continental areas and in the Ionian, from the morning to the afternoon, rainfall will be strong in places. In the same areas there will also be storms and possibly hail. A weakening of the phenomena is expected from the evening hours tomorrow. The concentrations of dust in the atmosphere will be increased and the phenomena in some cases will have characteristics of mud rain. According to the classification of the precipitation episode (RPI), which is applied by the Meteo unit of the National Observatory of Athens, the precipitation episode for Thursday 26/10 is classified as Category 2 (Moderate). Winds in the Aegean will blow from southerly directions up to 5-6 Beaufort, while in the Ionian the initially southerly winds up to 4-5 Beaufort will gradually turn to westerlies up to 4 Beaufort. The temperature will show a small drop in terms of its maximum values in the north and west, but remaining at high values for the season.

In more detail, they will be affected: a. from noon the area of Corfu-Paxos and Epirus. b. from early afternoon the rest of the Ionian islands, western Sterea, western Macedonia and northwestern Peloponnese. c. from late afternoon central Macedonia. At night, the phenomena in the aforementioned areas will weaken, but for the time being, Thessaly and possibly northern Evia will be strongly affected.  

"All my memories are here. Now it is all totally destroyed. We have thrown out everything away," Kostis told Reuters. Storm Daniel, Greece's most intense since records began in 1930, swept through Thessaly for three days this month, killing 16 people - among them two from Metamorfosi - flooding cities and villages and turning the region into an inland sea. Hundreds of residents were airlifted or pulled out of flooded homes in lifeboats, crops were washed away and tens of thousands of animals drowned. Weeks later, the water has turned into mud, revealing the devastation in villages such as Metamorfosi, which had nearly disappeared beneath the water. Like Kostis, the more than 300 residents of the village are primarily farmers occupied mainly with cotton cultivation, as well as some corn and livestock. Most of them have found shelter in relatives' homes or by renting accommodation in nearby villages that did not flood. "Now, no one lives in the village. Everyone has left. They all come during the day, they clean, they throw things away, they wash the houses, and then they leave again," Kostis said. In the empty streets of Metamorfosi, which in Greek means transfiguration, piles of residents' belongings, framed paintings, furniture, blankets and carpets, are the only spot of colour in the mud. The cemetery and buildings including the Church of the Transfiguration of Sotiros, a religious site visited by thousands of pilgrims each year, have suffered heavy damage. The storm's impact on Metamorfosi was so emblematic of the devastation that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis showed pictures of the submerged village when he met EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sept. 12 to request more aid from the European Union. Kostis said the village had been hit by a flood in 1994, but then residents had been able to return three months later. This time, it might take longer, he said. "With 4 meters of water, it will be a bit difficult to come back until spring,” he said.  

Municipal workers were handing out bottled water in the storm-hit city of Volos, where power and water outages remained in some districts for a third day, while rescue crews used excavators to clear debris-strewn roads blocking access to remote nearby areas. The 2 storms, Daniel and Elias, struck central Greece and the island of Evia over 3 weeks in September, killing several hundred thousand farm animals and damaging highways, secondary roads and the rail network.               Despite the improving weather, the risk of additional flooding remains high in several central cities and towns as river banks remain vulnerable to high water levels, authorities said. The government said more than 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion) in damages had been caused before the latest storm hit. It has promised residents emergency aid while seeking financial assistance from the European Union.

The storm — called Elias — caused extensive flooding in the central city of Volos and left hundreds stranded in nearby mountain villages. The fire service carried out multiple rescues and evacuations, authorities said. Rescuers were also searching a mountainous area for the pilot of a private helicopter that went missing in the bad weather. “All of Volos has turned into a lake,” Volos Mayor Achilleas Beos told state television. “People’s lives are in danger. Even I remained trapped, and 80% of the city is without power. … I don’t know where God found so much water. It’s like the story of Noah’s Ark.” Bad weather earlier this month struck the same area, killing 16 people, and causing more than 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion) in damage to farms and infrastructure. Authorities said there were no deaths this time and that apart from the pilot, none of the residents from the afflicted regions were reported missing.. Military and municipal crews scrambled to flooded areas. They placed flood victims, many of them elderly, in dinghies or excavator buckets to lead them to safety. A total 280 people were removed to safe areas, the fire service said. Residents in Volos used plastic buckets and brooms to push the mud out of their homes and to try to protect their belongings. Among them was 83-year-old Apostolis Dafereras, who has lived in a suburb of the city since 1955. “I have never seen anything like this,” Dafereras said, looking out the window of his ground-floor home as knee-high flood water gushed past. Earlier, he and other residents on his street tried to push mud and flood water out of his home. “The water came in and we were practically swimming,” Dafereras said. “We stayed upstairs with our tenant.” Authorities said the worst damage was reported around Volos and in northern parts of the nearby island of Evia, an area vulnerable to flooding due to the impact of massive wildfires two years ago. The European Union has promised Greece more than 2 billion euros in financial support to cope with the damage caused by summer wildfires and the ongoing floods, while Athens is renegotiating the terms of other aid packages to direct funds toward climate change adaptation. “Volos has been hit a second time with a storm of lasting duration. ... The state is with those who are struggling,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in Parliament. “The positive course of the country has been overshadowed by natural disasters that are attacks caused by climate change.” Mitsotakis promised to rebuild infrastructure to a higher standard after roads, bridges and rail tracks were washed away in the floods. But many flood victims in Volos said they felt unprotected, angered that their homes had been damaged for a second time. “The situation wasn’t just handled in an amateur way,” city resident Pantos Pinakas said. “It was handled in a way (that was) extremely dangerous and reprehensible.”  

On Monday, Storm Elias was expected to chiefly affect Thessaly (especially Karditsa and Trikala) and western Macedonia, parts of Central Macedonia and Fokida, Fthiotida, Evrytania and Viotia in Central Greece. It may briefly also impact Epirus, west Central Greece and the north Peloponnese. On Tuesday, rain and storms are forecast in the Ionian Sea, mainland Greece (except in Macedonia and Thrace) and later the Sporades islands and north Evia. The most rainfall is expected in Thessaly, Central Greece and Epirus. On Wednesday, intense weather phenomena are forecast to affect the Ionian Sea, central and southern mainland Greece, the Sporades islands, Evia, western Crete and possibly the western Cyclades islands. The biggest quantities of rain are expected to fall in Karditsa, Fthiotida, eastern parts of Magnesia and north Evia. Strong rain and storms are forecast to continue until the afternoon on Thursday in the Sporades islands, Magnesia, north Evia and northeastern Central Greece before gradually subsiding.

Now, farmers on the forested slopes of Mount Pilion, which overlooks the plain of Thessaly, say they face millions of euros in damage from the flooding that began earlier this month. They will be lucky to salvage a third of their crop — and that will only happen if wrecked road access to their orchards is patched up in time. As bad as the damage suffered by the Pilion farmers was, their peers in the plain were hit by even greater devastation from last week’s disastrous floods that left 16 people dead, days after wildfires killed 20 people in northeastern Greece. The storms flooded 720 square kilometers (280 square miles), mostly prime farmland, totally destroying crops. They also swamped hundreds of buildings, broke the country’s railway backbone, savaged rural roads and bridges and killed tens of thousands of livestock. Thessaly — a major farming center for thousands of years — accounts for about 5% of national economic output, and a much larger proportion of agricultural produce, although much of that is now cotton and tobacco. Some areas remained under threat of flooding Friday, with some lakeside dwellers warned to prepare for evacuation if needed. Greece, which has returned to fiscal health after an eight-year financial crisis that shook global markets, is now assessing the staggering cost of the flooding. Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis said the precise sum remains elusive. “But ... we’re talking in the billions (of euros),” he told private Antenna TV, adding that the center-right government is drafting a supplementary state budget of about 600 million euros ($638 million) for this year’s immediate funding needs. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was expected to outline further details during a keynote economic policy speech on Saturday. The natural disaster came amid a cost-of-living crisis triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine which, on the back of the COVID-19 pandemic, inflated state social spending through an array of subsidies. Hatzidakis warned that this might now be curtailed. The government is adamant that it must meet its savings targets to prove that Greece has forever rejected its former profligacy, and pending an eagerly anticipated new credit upgrade that would boost foreign investment and cut borrowing costs. “If we send the message that in Greece we are again becoming lax and adopting wrong practices of the past, we will relapse,” Hatzidakis said. “After so many sacrifices over so many years, and the progress in recent years, (that) would be an enormous shame.” Officials are confident that the savings target will be met, and the European Union, which has also pledged flood relief funds, has said this emergency spending won’t be subject to Greece’s budget constraints dating from the 2010-2018 financial crisis. The government says EU assistance will contribute to urgent infrastructure repairs in Thessaly, starting with the wrecked railway line. Nikos Tachiaos, a deputy minister for infrastructure, said the damage is “enormous,” particularly to the railway, where a 50-kilometer (80-mile) stretch of the only line carrying goods and passengers between southern and northern Greece has been largely destroyed. He said it could take up to two months to get just one track partially functioning. “But the full rebuilding of the railway network will take a long time ... and a lot of money,” Tachiaos told state-run ERT television. A flooded section of the main north-south highway partially reopened late Friday, while efforts were underway to restore drinking water to Volos, a town of about 85,000 in the shadow of Pilion. The government has also promised speedy compensation to thousands of people whose houses were flooded and who lost livestock and farm machinery. The loss of nearly 90,000 sheep, goats, pigs and cows has been registered so far, along with more than 120,000 poultry. In the village of Zagora on Pilion, farming union leader Thodoris Georgadakis urged authorities to mend the unpassable roads leading to local orchards where apples await harvesting. “The cost of the storms could exceed 10 million euros ($10.7 million) for apple farmers alone,” he told The Associated Press. “We expect this harvest to reach 6,500 tons, down from 22,000 on a normal year. That’s only if the roads are mended soon.” The damage to crops could also push up already inflated food prices across Greece, with double-digit increases already reported in some areas. Fears have also been expressed that flooded fields will be unusable for years, though Greece’s agriculture ministry has sought to play down that concern. A ministry statement Friday warned that authorities would crack down on profiteering, adding that Thessaly grows only 7.5% of the country’s total fresh fruit and vegetables, “and very little of that has been affected.” In southern Pilion, Mayor Michael Mitzikos worries about the effect on the important tourist industry, especially in battered seaside villages from which visitors had to be evacuated by sea after their road access was destroyed. Mitzikos said the cost was “incalculable.” “There are the tourists who fled their rented rooms and hotels (amid the floods) and also all those who canceled,” he said. “The season in these coastal areas normally extends into early November.”  

Storm Daniel, Greece’s most intense since records began in 1930, swept through Thessaly in central Greece for three days at the end of the hottest summer ever recorded in the country. Torrents of water turned the fertile Thessaly plain into an inland sea, with hundreds of residents airlifted or pulled out of flooded homes in lifeboats, crops washed away and tens of thousands of animals drowned. A top prosecutor has ordered authorities in the areas of Volos, Karditsa, Larissa and Trikala, the worst-hit regions, to determine whether any crimes were committed, including flooding by intention or negligence, the Athens News Agency said. The investigation will also look into whether flood prevention measures taken by local authorities were adequate in the light of clear advance warnings by Greece’s national meteorological service. A destructive storm had hit the same region in 2020. Nearly a week after Daniel, many villages across some 72,000 hectares were still swamped with muddy water in the Thessaly plain. The EU Commission said on Tuesday that Greece could tap up to 2.25 billion euros in European funds to tackle the impact of the storm. Greece will also look to secure 500-600 million euros ($1.18 billion) from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Fund to immediately fix damaged roads, railway and bridges, Infrastructure Minister Christos Staikouras said. “We need to act quickly, with planning for safety,” he told an Economist event in Thessaloniki. Greek lawmakers were due to vote on Wednesday on draft legislation allowing the infrastructure ministry to take over planning, contracting and implementing emergency reconstruction works in the areas hit by the disaster, Staikouras said. Athens has announced immediate relief measures for those areas. Greece’s largest lenders would also freeze loan repayments for businesses and households hit by the rainstorm until the end of the year, their association said in a statement later on Wednesday.