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Weather news from Greece


Steeve88

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Hello everyone,

 

I've just introduced this new topic about Greece. As you may know Greece doesn't mean just sun, fair weather and beaches. Furthermore, the very complicated orography can affect the weather from a place to another even if the distance is just a few Kilometers. So, I will use this topic to prove what I said :) . Of course, if anyone has any comments, queries or even matterial from Greece, he/she can upload.

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Inauguratιng this topic, I am uploading a video from a shot snowfall in a suburb of Thessaloniki last Friday (5/2/2016). The suburb is at 400 m of altitude:

 

 

In the meanwhile, a bit higher (close to 900 m) on the mountain close to Thessaloniki (called Chortiatis), the snow height was a bit more. That amount of snow was not too much, but it was quite enough for such a bad winter:

http://www.northmeteo.gr/gallery/xionoptosi-sto-xortiath6-2-16/

Finally, another video (timelapse) from a place south of Thessaloniki, called Kallikratia. It is a place that we usally go for swimming during Summer. However, it has high possibilities to be snowed during winter. Enjoy:
 

 

Edited by Steeve88
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Hello...

A friend of mine wrote an article that has a few photos from a nice snowy day in Thessaloniki. That was a year ago exactly. Most of the pictures are from the suburbs (altitude between 300-600 m). However the last four are from places next to the sea (or from places with close-to-zero altitude). Enjoy:

 

http://www.northmeteo.gr/gallery/xionia-sti-thessaloniki-photos/

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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...
Posted
  • Location: East Ham, London
  • Location: East Ham, London

Evening all :)

Just back from a week on Corfu and as others have said, Greek weather is far more than  heat and warmth. We were on the east coast of the island at a small village called Agios Ioannis Persiteron. roughly half way between Corfu Town and Cavos.

For us, a week of three halves...yes, I know.

We arrived last Monday and for the first couple of days, the weather was hot and humid with a light NE'ly breeze. Fine and dry with us but huge thunderstorms developed over the Greek and Albanian mainland and some of the cloud reached across to Corfu in the late evening but no rain.

On Wednesday, there was a significant change with the wind veering South which brought in much fresher conditions - still dry, sunny and very warm (mid 20s by early afternoon) but lower humidity overall.

On Friday we went in to Corfu on a day which saw the return of humidity and we saw a large thunderstorm just offshore to the north and east of the island - Mrs Stodge has an excellent picture of two cruise liners in Corfu harbour with the storm in the background. We heard thunder in Corfu itself but no rain.

Saturday started cloudy but became dry and hot by mid afternoon with the wind backing more SW'ly.

Sunday brought increasing cloud and wind which presaged this morning's huge thunderstorm which broke over Agios Ioannis at 9.30 bringing strong winds and torrential winds. Our taxi got us to Corfu Airport okay but the airport was a mass of delayed passengers with flights from the UK and elsewhere diverted to Brindisi, Salonika and Athens. Fortunately, our flight made it with only a small delay and we left barely 30 minutes late as the weather cleared and brightened but that was an impressive storm to bid Corfu farewell. 

 

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  • 6 months later...

Merry Christmas from Thessaloniki.. Temperature ~6.8.C, much "warmer" than previous days, when it fell to -9 (!!!) during the night in some suburbs.

 

http://www.northmeteo.gr/kameres-kalamarias/

 

Waiting for wintry weather this week from Wednesday and then with snow even in Athens. Places such as Evia are likely to get more than 50cm of snow.

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Posted
  • Location: Brighton (currently)
  • Location: Brighton (currently)
8 hours ago, Steeve88 said:

Merry Christmas from Thessaloniki.. Temperature ~6.8.C, much "warmer" than previous days, when it fell to -9 (!!!) during the night in some suburbs.

 

http://www.northmeteo.gr/kameres-kalamarias/

 

Waiting for wintry weather this week from Wednesday and then with snow even in Athens. Places such as Evia are likely to get more than 50cm of snow.

It is a good winter so far in Greece! Unlike here.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
  • Location: Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex
  • Weather Preferences: Winter Snow, extreme weather, mainly sunny mild summers though.
  • Location: Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex

Outskirts Athens end last week. This weeks lot of snow will be round two...or three for this Winter!:shok:

45822_1_1.jpg

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As an update of this extreme cold outbreak in Greece, the largest part of Greece is facing snow and most importantly extreme low temperatures. In Thessaloniki the temperature reached during the midday -5.C. Now it is around -8.C and it feels like -14 (because of the wind, whose max gust during the day was ~80km/h). Not so much snow here. Only some tiny snowflakes at times. Some places on east coast of central Greece got significant amount of snow. We probably get temperature records of the last 15 years (at least):

Some photos from Kimi in Evia: http://www.northmeteo.gr/blog/snow-in-kimi-of-evia-greece/

And a video of a short snowfall in Thessaloniki: http://www.northmeteo.gr/blog/xionoptosi-toumpa-thessalonikis/

Here is a table with all the weather station network in Greece. The warmest station is showing 6.7.C now in Crete: http://www.metar.org/upload/metar.php

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Posted
  • Location: Chesterfield, North Derbyshire 100m ASL
  • Location: Chesterfield, North Derbyshire 100m ASL
12 hours ago, Steeve88 said:

As an update of this extreme cold outbreak in Greece, the largest part of Greece is facing snow and most importantly extreme low temperatures. In Thessaloniki the temperature reached during the midday -5.C. Now it is around -8.C and it feels like -14 (because of the wind, whose max gust during the day was ~80km/h). Not so much snow here. Only some tiny snowflakes at times. Some places on east coast of central Greece got significant amount of snow. We probably get temperature records of the last 15 years (at least):

Some photos from Kimi in Evia: http://www.northmeteo.gr/blog/snow-in-kimi-of-evia-greece/

And a video of a short snowfall in Thessaloniki: http://www.northmeteo.gr/blog/xionoptosi-toumpa-thessalonikis/

Here is a table with all the weather station network in Greece. The warmest station is showing 6.7.C now in Crete: http://www.metar.org/upload/metar.php

Snowing in Crete

http://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/ellada/crete/chania/chania-old-port.html

Edited by OddSpot
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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...
Posted
  • Location: East Ham, London
  • Location: East Ham, London

Evening all :)

Mrs Stodge and I are just back from a ten day break on Zakynthos, also known as Zante. In weather terms, eight of the ten days were as you would expect - dry, sunny and hot with a cloudless sky and only a light N'ly wind. We hit 34c twice and above 30c on five other days according to the Greek weather service (hnms.gr).

Two days were less settled and more interesting oddly enough. The overall synoptics were a controlling LP system to the south and south east linking back to the thermal LP over the Persian Gulf. With HP to the west and north, Zakynthos enjoyed a refreshing N'ly breeze on most days but on these two days the heat of the day over the Greek interior spawned small LP areas and thunderstorms.

Greece has many islands and two significant land masses, the mainland and the Peloponnese (separated by the Corinth Canal). Both generate thunderstorms and thermal LP areas. As the Peloponnese LP evolves, it pulls the winds round more to the NE over the southern Ionian Islands and cloud drifts west from the mainland over to the islands and on one occasion one of the storms came with strong winds and a brief downpour.

As the LP drifts north over the mainland, the N'ly over the islands becomes a W'ly and this draws in fresher clearer air from the sea and the humidity crashes.

The winter rains and snow in the hills in 2016-17 had been intense with widespread flooding on a couple of occasions.    

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  • 4 years later...
Posted
  • Location: Hampshire
  • Weather Preferences: Bright weather. Warm sunny thundery summers, short cold winters.
  • Location: Hampshire

Looks like there haven't been any posts in this forum for a while but anyway, a report on a recent three-week trip to Greece (September 4-24). 

I visited Pieria, the area of Greece near Mount Olympus and perhaps 60km SW of Thessaloniki. I have visited this area fairly regularly in the past few years, often in September. In the main September seems to be warm/hot and sunny - summer persists late in the year here. My specific location was on the slopes of Mount Olympus, not far from the city of Katerini.

This year was actually a little more changeable and had quite a variety of weather, though thankfully (given how dull and gloomy the UK has been for much of the time this year - and, if I am honest, much of the past two years) warm and sunny weather still prevailed.

Arrived on the evening of September 4 when it was clear and notably warm - the warmest night I'd experienced since the short-lived July hot spell in the UK. There was a forecast for a break in the weather and the Sunday (5th) was warm, cloudy and humid.

Sunday evening the first dramatic event of the trip occurred when skies darkened notably to the north in the early evening, just before dark, with a wall of black cloud advancing after around 1900.  This was accompanied by thunder, lightning and around two hours of torrential rain before it cleared later in the evening.

In fact, the dominant wind direction in this area appears to be northerly, both low-level winds and upper-level weather-system steering winds; most systems appear to arrive from a direction between NW and NE and both lower- or upper-level winds from some southerly point are rare.

It also illustrates another feature of this area of Greece - in my experience it is surprisingly thundery. A surprisingly large number of days have visible thundery activity - there are not necessarily overhead storms but large Cbs and distant lightning are visible on quite a few days in the summer season. Thunder seems to occur at all seasons including winter; based on my experience I would estimate 30  thunder days as an annual average though perhaps I have just been lucky in this respect.

I would guess this was a marked cold front, as the following day (Mon 6th) was sunny but much fresher with good visibility. Wind was still northerly. However this did not immediately mark the transition to a warm settled regime as a further spell of (non thundery) rain arrived from the north after dark, preceded by Ac cloud, and the following day (Tues 7th) featured a heavy morning shower (forming over the sea) and was bright at times but still moderately cool with extensive large Cu. A further spell of rain arrived after dark and the following day (Wednesday 8th) was cool and wet. Northerly winds persisted - it actually reminded me of a common spring setup in southern England with northerlies, bright weather but a series of troughs from the north.

The changeable weather then retreated and Thurs 9th featured increasingly bright weather move in from the north. Though the air was still cool, the strength of the sun when it came out was notable compared to the UK and it felt almost hot at times - though cool when the cloud came over.

Fri 10th was a very nice day. Blue skies, sunshine and low humidity, cool early and late and dry warmth around the middle of the day, peaking around 26C. However it evidently wasn't completely settled as distant Cb formed to the east in the afternoon - over Halkidiki, which is, together with the mountains on the Bulgarian border, a very common location for Cb formation in this area. Perhaps a heavily-warmed arctic maritime airmass? The northerly winds continued.

More humid air arrived on Sat 11th with a marked reduction in visibility and presumably increase in DP. It was sunny at times though ragged Cu built up to quite an extent also. Warm. Sun 12th was somewhat similar though there appeared to be a frontal system to the west as Ci/Cs built up the other side of Olympus while to the east the skies were clear.

The most settled phase of the trip then began as it was increasingly sunny and hot, with warmer evenings (though still sub-20 minima) and maxima in the high twenties. After some cloud on Monday 13th, Tues 14th, Wed 15th and most of Thurs 16th were sunny though a little hazy. That being said, distant Cb to the east once again appeared on Wed 15th, the third day with visible thundery activity thus far. Winds were northeasterly: I get the impression most hot weather arrives from the Middle East via Turkey on NE winds, certainly N or NE is the dominant summer direction even in very hot spells. Southerlies or SE-lies are decidedly rare, though commoner in winter (caveat - have only been there in winter one year).

Another bank of cloud arrived from the north on the evening of Thurs 16th, preceding a warm cloudy night. Thereafter there was a further change and a west-north-westerly wind developed. However this was the hottest and most humid phase of the whole three weeks, with the morning of Sat 18th in particular being notably hot. Certainly not typical WNW conditions, it was hot, humid and hazy and the sky was decidedly thundery on the morning of Sat 18th with Ac cast visible. Not sure exactly where this airmass originated.. North Africa via north Italy perhaps?

Sat 18th am was also very hazy indeed and it was forecast to be hot and sunny all day but thundery showers developed in the afternoon. These did not pass overhead but certainly within 15km or so. A front of some kind appeared to pass over as there was an hour or so of strong winds, and visibility improved markedly. The evening, and Sun 19th, were thus somewhat cooler with better visibility, though still humid, and further thundery showers formed on Sun 19th. This airmass resembled an 'extreme-rPm' airmass in western Europe in which Pm heads south almost to Africa before returning northwards, the effect resembling a cross between Pm and Tc. The weekend of September 23rd 2006 in southern England is a good example of the sort of thing I mean. Nonetheless the wind remained WNW-ly.

The thundery showers faded Sunday evening and Monday 20th was sunny and increasingly hot, the evening in particular having a real tropical feel, probably the warmest evening of the three weeks. Following this however cooler weather set in, Tuesday 21st was initially cloudy and then sunny and cooler, though perhaps still 26C or so.

The big surprise was on the night of Tues 21st. The afternoon and evening of said day was not at all thundery or humid, yet Cu started building up around sunset and substantial Cu was forming overhead around 2200 on what was a strongly moonlit night. A very unusual effect Around the same time distant lightning appeared to the NE and there followed what is probably the most impressive night-time convection I have experienced. A mass of huge Cu and Cb built up to the east, clearly visible by the moonlight, with a large and impressive Cb moving approx NNW-SSE approaching midnight. The lightning from this became more and more frequent, and it appeared to hit the city of Thessaloniki as its lights, normally clearly visible, became obscured. The storm continued southwards and appeared to back-build with new towers going up, the most impressive then forming on its west side after midnight, over the sea between Pieria and Halkidiki (the Thermaic Gulf). Lightning was every 2 seconds or so at one point from a massive and impressive Cb tower. This even eclipsed the memorable event of August 3rd 1994 for night-time convection. Overhead however skies were mostly clear.

I am guessing this storm was on a cold front as around 0100 there was another sudden arrival of strong winds which persisted for a while and low-to-mid level clouds flooded the sky. The next day (Wed 22) had lower DP with NE winds, and a sunny morning was followed by an overcast and dull afternoon with showers visible nearby. Thurs 23 was sunny but notably cool for Greece, with temps around 18 or 19C at 1300 - likely to be an Arctic plunge I suspect. Finally Fri 24 was sunny with very dry air.

So an interesting variety of weather. It probably needs another post but this part of northern Greece is not only (predictably) sunnier, drier and warmer than north-western Europe, but I would go so far as to say that the climate is more interesting all around. More thundery activity, more well-defined cold fronts with nice clearances, and more snow (which is another story)...

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Summer8906
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Posted
  • Location: Aberdeen
  • Location: Aberdeen

Hi all. I'm heading to Rhodes on the 16th October for a week. I often go at that time and been lucky to get good weather. Outlook looks a bit mixed though. Anyone with any experience of that area an takes?

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Posted
  • Location: howth,east dublin city
  • Weather Preferences: extremes
  • Location: howth,east dublin city

I am currently on Crete about 40km east of Chania and today we have had 5hrs of persistent and drenching rain with ground lightning strikes from 10AM and would guess around 25 40mm fell in that time.. The previous 6 days were very pleasant with 24 to 28.8 degrees and mostly sunny although a sharp thunderstorm struck on Monday midday.  Cooler today obviously and looks like round 2 tonight which would be great to see night lightning .As for the weekend it looks like all of the Aegean see Rhodes included will see many storms as unsettled weather prevails here in Greece. 

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Posted
  • Location: Codicote, Hertfordshire
  • Location: Codicote, Hertfordshire

Was in Kos from 24th Sept until 5th Oct.

First 7 days, lovely and sunny, 29/28 degree, but 2 days before our return, was 25/26 degrees, and noticeably cooler at night.

 

 

IMG_0266.JPG

IMG_0263.JPG

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
  • Location: Witney, Oxon
  • Weather Preferences: Storms!
  • Location: Witney, Oxon

Currently in Crete, was a lovely weekend, but now 18C, cloudy, wet and not at all what I was expecting. Doesnt look like it will change before I fly home at the weekend either ☹

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Posted
  • Location: Aberdeen
  • Location: Aberdeen

I think we got lucky in Rhodes. Sunny, though keen wind at times. Mid 20s but as another poster mentioned nights chilly.  

We usually are there earlier in month and this year at least then the weather turns through October. Still very pleasant, but the earlier the better I guess.

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  • 2 months later...
Posted
  • Location: Croydon. South London. 161 ft asl
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms, snow, warm sunny days.
  • Location: Croydon. South London. 161 ft asl
WWW.MSN.COM

The Greek island of Samothrace in north Aegean was hit by a severe snowstorm that disrupted the life of locals with many roads covered in snow and some power lines totally cut off. Extreme weather conditions...

 

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Posted
  • Location: Coggeshall, Nr Colchester, Essex
  • Location: Coggeshall, Nr Colchester, Essex
On 16/01/2022 at 19:53, D.V.R said:
WWW.MSN.COM

The Greek island of Samothrace in north Aegean was hit by a severe snowstorm that disrupted the life of locals with many roads covered in snow and some power lines totally cut off. Extreme weather conditions...

 

Must admit I've not heard of this island but according to Wikipedia it does suffer from occasional heavy snowstorms. It's quite a mountainous island and I guess it's close proximity to Turkey helps provide the cold air in winter. This snowfall wasn't just in the mountains but all the way down to sea level. What gets me is the sheer amount of snow must be feet of the stuff. Looks beautiful filmed from the sea.

 

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