Unseasonably warm weather, accompanied by high humidity indices, resulted in
quite uncomfortable conditions for all over much of Greece during the last
three days. Ships in the Saronic gulf were not allowed to go further away
than Aegina (an island very close to Athens) this morning because of the
dense fog over the sea.
However, it has already started getting drier as a cold front crossed the
country moving southeastwards. A low that is forecast to cross just north of
the border on Wednesday should bring a significant drop in temperature,
primarily over the northern highlands, were snowfalls are forecast for
Wednesday afternoon and evening (850 hPa ~ 0C), before the phenomena come to
a halt early on Thursday. Very short but most welcome cool spell, as October
has been very hot indeed so far.

Yannis, SE Athens
+22.0C

"Yannis" wrote in message ...

A low that is forecast to cross just north of
the border on Wednesday should bring a significant drop in temperature,
primarily over the northern highlands, were snowfalls are forecast for
Wednesday afternoon and evening (850 hPa ~ 0C), before the phenomena come
to
a halt early on Thursday. Very short but most welcome cool spell, as
October
has been very hot indeed so far.

And snow has arrived indeed. Several mountain ranges in the north woke up in
a snow cover. The ones holding the most snow are Olympus, Pieria, Voras
(Kaymakcalan) and Falakro. Snow level is ranging from 1100 to 1600 m.

The cold front crossed Athens some minutes before 090100 EEST, bringing very
gusty NWlies and an increase in visibility (30 km). Peak gusts exceeded 50
mph locally (54 mph in NE Athens, also 58mph in Thessaloniki, 63 mph at
Skyros). Total rainfall accumulations since yesterday: 43 mm at Andravida,
32 mm at Tripolis, 22 mm at Alexandroupolis, 19 mm at Mytilini, 11.1 mm in W
Athens.

Pictures from the thunderstorm in Athens and the suburbs (by Nikos Ghikas):
http://niovi.aueb.gr/~nts/images/081003/thu1.jpg
http://niovi.aueb.gr/~nts/images/081003/thu2.jpg
http://niovi.aueb.gr/~nts/images/081003/thu3.jpg

The gusts caused quite a few problems in power supply. Nikos managed to
capture something interesting as well:
http://dias.aueb.gr/~nts/images/081003/Cap0064.MPG (or, for three still
images:
http://dias.aueb.gr/~nts/images/081003/kalwdio1.jpg
http://dias.aueb.gr/~nts/images/081003/kalwdio2.jpg
http://dias.aueb.gr/~nts/images/081003/kalwdio3.jpg )

Yannis, E. Athens
+16C, RH 55%, calmed down