Good afternoon, everyone.

The Greek April record was reset this afternoon after a very brief
+37.6C reading at the airport of Irakleio due to the Föhn effect of
the southerlies -a very big contrast compared to other areas in
Greece, the south parts of the island or, indeed, the same spot a few
minutes after and before the maximum temperature reading.

The airport of Chania, which saw its record break, too, reported the
following two METARs just an hour ago:
3:00 PM 36°C / 1°C / 5% / 1007 hPa / West 29.6 km/h
3:20 PM 25°C / 13°C /47% / 1008 hPa / NW / 35.2 km/h

People from northern Crete are reporting extremely different
temperature experiences from minute to minute, depending on whether
the wind comes directly from the (up to) 2456m peaks or from the
coast.

The Föhn effect is very typical in April, especially in northern Crete
and parts of eastern continental Greece, making some -both spatially
and temporally- non representative station records stand out. The
beginning of the southerlies was visible as advection fog in Athens,
too, on Saturday, as air originating from Sahara found its way to
Greece after having passed over the still relatively cool
Mediterranean.

Enjoy your afternoon, everyone.
Yannis.

"Yannis" wrote in message
...


The Föhn effect is very typical in April, especially in northern Crete
and parts of eastern continental Greece, making some -both spatially
and temporally- non representative station records stand out. The
beginning of the southerlies was visible as advection fog in Athens,
too, on Saturday, as air originating from Sahara found its way to
Greece after having passed over the still relatively cool
Mediterranean.


A picture from the Southern Euboean gulf (east side of the Attica peninsula,
where Athens is situated) on Saturday, as cooling down the warm, humid air
to its dew point was an easy task when the southerlies took over:
http://users.otenet.gr/~billija/Capture_002.jpg

Advection fog is more frequent in Greater Athens in April and May. In other
areas, such as the Central Macedonian plains, it frequently happens in
winter and early spring when mild southerlies pass over snow covered areas.

Yannis/NL

On 23 Apr, 00:37, "Yannis" wrote:
"Yannis" wrote in message

...


Yesterdays European hotspot was: 16754 Heraklion (Aero)(37m) ,Greece
37.4 °c

Lovely ;-)

lots of rain over the Alpine region yesterday.

Keith (Southend)
http://www.southendweather.net

I was talking to a couple at a village party on Wednesday evening.
They had just returned from Crete and gave a wonderful description of
rapidly fluctuating temperatures from scorching dry heat to feeling
like they had opened the fridge door. Wind directions apparently
varied (although they didn't actually note the correlation between
temperature and wind direction although there would have been some).
They had already noticed a peculiar cloud that was unlike any they had
seen before. One interesting observation was how periodically the sea
surface became very rough(appeared to be "boiling"), presumably as the
down current hit the surface. They gave a fascinating account but had
no idea as to the reason so have now been made the wiser.

On a parallel topic, I have been given a link to a marvellous time
lapse of our own Helm Wind made by Anita Evans and the link can be
seen on my weatherjack page, but here's the short cut direct.

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?...38823&hl=en-GB

Jack