"Keith (Southend)" wrote in message
...
Hi Yannis,

We often hear from you regarding snowfall in Greece.In the event of
global warming etc, which seems to have reduced the winters in the
south of the uk to a few frosts, is the frequency of snowfall in
Greece greater or lesser than the long term average?

Thanks for the question, Keith. One often hears locals from many parts of
the country (Greece, that is), moan that "there are no real winters anymore"
and that "the cold weather we're experiencing is nothing compared to the
good ol' times". I heard people from northwestern Greece say that winter
only arrived during the ending week, as they got half a metre of snow
accumulations overnight, which they were used to get more often. I think
that the number of snowfalls has been unchanged (on average), but
expectionally long snowy periods are less frequent -but present- in those
areas of Greece that tend to receive the most snow (western Macedonia,
"queen of snow" in Greece, eastern Macedonia, western Thessaly, central
continental Greece, central Peloponnese and mountainous Crete).
Greater Athens and Attica in general, for which I can speak from personal
experience, is characterised by a greater variance when it comes to the
frequency of snowfalls from year to year. The 90s have been quite poor, with
the exception of December 1991 - March 1992, while the 80s and the current
decade have been quite good so far.

In other words are these winter snowfalls normal or more exceptional
nowadays?

They're normal for these areas of Greece that it is -still- snowing and
people have been expecting them. If we got these accumulations of snow
overnight in the centre of Athens, however, it would have caused chaos :-)
(Athens is pretty much like the SE of England, in terms of journalists
attention/exaggeration and people's unpreparedness).

The reason I ask is along Philip Eden's findings with regards to the UK
experiencing more predominently south and southwest winds in the
winter months, hence the lack of cold weather here.

There are "bad" (mild) winters here too -ofcourse- like the 2000-2001 one.

Would be interested in your thoughts?

I hope I've helped answer your questions. 65.8 mm of rain during the last 9
hours, maximum rainfall intensity 62.5 mm/h at 0025.

Yannis, SE Athens
+5.1C, RH 90%, SLP 1000.6 hPa, +RA