Category: Weather (page 3 of 3)

Wild winter weather wallops Greece

January 2, 2015 / / 7 Comments
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Skopelos Greece after snowfall

Photographer Costas Andreou captured this photo of Skopelos after a winter storm left the island covered in a blanket of white. On December 30, snow fell on Skopelos and the neighbouring islands of Skiathos and Alonissos.

 

Winter wonderlands: I was envious when a friend in Athens told me it was sunny and 17 degrees Celsius there on Christmas Day. But I didn’t feel jealous just a few days later when I logged into Facebook to find my news feed filled with reports and photos of wild winter at places all over Greece — including several islands.

Beginning this past Monday (December 29),  storm systems blasted many parts of Greece with a wide mix of severe weather conditions that included icy cold temperatures, gale-force winds, rain, sleet, and snow.

On Tuesday (December 30), friends in Athens posted pictures of snow-dusted mountains near the city, while numerous individuals and Facebook groups like Amazing Greece/Incroyable Grèce posted links to websites and Instagram pages featuring photos of snowy scenes on the islands of Skopelos and Crete, and such mainland locations as Attiki, Kastoria, Meteora, Florina, Tripoli and Arachova.

Online videos showed gale-force winds pummelling island coastlines and harbours with relentless tall waves, while photos showed pretty Christmas card scenes of snow-covered mountain villages in Crete.

 Tripoli Greece

This photo shows the city of Tripoli (in the Arcadia region of the Peloponnese) following a snowfall on December 28. It was posted on the Amazing Greece/Incroyable Grèce Facebook page.

 

 Ancient Theater of Epidaurus

This pic of snow at the Ancient Theater of Epidaurus was circulated on numerous Facebook profiles and pages, including Amazing Greece/Incroyable Grèce 

 

A January 1 report on the Newsbomb website said fierce winds caused power outages at such diverse locations as the cities of Chania on Crete, Mytilini on the Northeast Aegean island of Lesvos, and Ioannina on the western Greece mainland. Heavy snow caused power failures and road closures at numerous spots on the mainland and in northern Greece, where temperatures plummeted to -10 Celsius and colder. A January 1 report on Protothema News also described how the New Year got off to a frigid and snowy start in many parts of Greece.

Some of the most-shared items on social media were reports and photos of snow and brutal winds at Skopelos, Skiathos and Alonissos in the Sporades island group. Many people seemed surprised that it snowed on Skopelos and Skiathos, which they’re familiar with from the hit movie Mamma Mia!, where many scenes were filmed.

 

Achliades beach on Skiatho

A dog plays on snow-dusted Achliades beach on Skiathos in a photo posted on the theseus.aegean Instagram feed.

 

Alonissos island

Another widely shared image was this shot of snow-covered fishing boats in a harbour at Alonissos island

 

 However, it’s not unusual for snow to fall in the Sporades, or for the mercury to plummet to bone-chilling temperatures on other Greek islands, too. This fact often comes as news to many people, like someone in the United States whose December 30 post on the TripAdvisor Santorini forum asked why the Bahamas are more popular in winter months than Greek Islands like Mykonos and Santorini. After several people explained that Greece doesn’t have a tropical climate, the poster replied: “I guess I got the wrong feeling from looking at the postcards and watching the History Channel as I had the impression that the “eternal summer” is the norm in the islands!!”

They aren’t alone in thinking that way — as I noted in my December 15 2013 post, Greece gets winter, too!, many friends and acquaintances of mine in North America think Greece is a balmy beach destination all year round, too.

Although winter is off-season for travel to many parts of Greece, especially smaller islands, the cities of Athens and Thessaloniki are year-round tourist destinations, as are many locations on the Greece mainland. And as a December 29 2014 CNN Travel article pointed out, winter is an excellent time to visit Greece for “romantic escapes,” “city breaks,” “dramatic scenery” and more.  “Falling temperatures sprinkle new magic on stone-built villages lost in deep forests and medieval castles built into that beautiful Greek coastline,” the CNN feature story says.

 

Ippokrateios Politeia in Attiki

The Amazing Greece Facebook page posted this photo showing a dog in the snow at Ippokrateios Politeia in Attiki on December 31 2014

 

sheep in snow on Crete

Michael Kokkinos posted this Facebook image of a long line of sheep trudging through deep snow near Psiloriti on Crete

 

 Should you be interested in taking an off-season holiday to Greece, be sure to read the article Top 5 winter destinations on VisitGreece, the official website of the Greek National Tourism Organisation. It provides information about visiting Mount Pelion, the Zagorochoria villages, Arcadia, Arachova and Karpenissi.

For information about skiing and snowboarding, the Discover Greece website offers advice on where to enjoy mountain ski holidays.

If you’d rather just view winter scenes in Greece, you can see more photos of snow on Skopelos on the Potami House photo blog and on the Skopelosnews blog, as well as on the Facebook page for photographer Costas Andreou. On Instagram, check out the theseus.aegean page to see several pictures of snow falling on Achladies beach on Skiathos. There’s a few photos and a couple of video clips of storm scenes elsewhere in Greece in a December 31 post on the Protothema News website, too. And for those of you who use Facebook, don’t miss the excellent photos in the album White…snowy vineyards all over Greece!, posted by New Wines of Greece.

Keep warm and enjoy!

Sudden storm soaks Skiathos on Sunday

June 16, 2014 / / 3 Comments
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This video showing a Skiathos Town street flooded by yesterday’s thunderstorm was posted on YouTube by the tsak Bpam crêperie. It reminded me of television newsclips reporting on flooding from monsoons in southeast Asia. This wasn’t a scene I would expect to see on a Greek island in June!

 

 

Stormy interlude: I keep a small travel-size umbrella in my luggage just in case we encounter some rainy weather while travelling in Greece, and we have had to use it a few times. If we manage to schedule a trip to Skiathos in the near future, news about some wild weather on the island yesterday may make me consider packing some rubber boots, too.

Only two weeks ago, in my June 4 post Greek islands take spring weather woes in stride, I reported about thunderstorms that brought several days of heavy rain and strong wind to many parts of Greece at the beginning of this month.

This past Sunday afternoon, Skiathos got thoroughly drenched by a sudden deluge that dumped over an inch of rain on parts of the island in less than an hour.

 

Torrential rain, power cuts and street flooding reported

News about the latest bout of bad weather broke on the TripAdvisor.com Skiathos forum where SkiathosLover1, a TripAdvisor destination expert for the island, started a conversation thread entitled “Violent Storms … affecting the island this afternoon,” and described “torrential rain,” thunder and lightning, power dips, and “reports of flooding in Papadamatis street.” SkiathosLover1 also included a link to the YouTube video which I posted above.

Numerous people quickly posted replies expressing concern and hopes that all residents and visitors to the island were safe and minimally affected by the tempest.

This morning TA member ShaunWin chided them for “getting so worked up about yesterday’s storm.” It lasted only an hour and “was fun to watch,” he wrote, but “that was it. It’s glorious again today, with not a cloud in the sky.”

“If you’ve got friends or fans out here and are worrying about them: Don’t! They’ll be on the beach or on the beers today and not worrying about you!!” ShaunWin observed.

However, while the storm may have been fun for some to watch, SkiathosLover1 pointed out that it did cause considerable damage bringing down trees, and did frighten passengers returning to the island on tour boats.

A description of the storm’s highlights can be read a June 15 post on The Skiathan blog.

 

Skiathos street flooding

Nikos Paschalis  posted this photo on Facebook, showing stormwater rushing down Papadamatis street in Skiathos Town during the late afternoon downpour.

 

Greek islands take spring weather woes in stride

June 4, 2014 / / 1 Comment
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Stormclouds at Mykonos

Dark stormclouds hover overhead as rain falls on Mykonos and nearby islands. I shot this photo from the swimming pool deck at Hotel Tagoo on the morning of May 18 2012. Many Greek islands and parts of mainland Greece have been experiencing similar stormy weather conditions this week.

 

Be prepared: If you’re planning to travel to Greece in May or early June next year, be sure to pack an umbrella or waterproof windbreaker in your suitcase — there’s a good chance you might need to use them for a day or two.

Occasional bad weather used to be something you could expect to encounter in early spring — especially while travelling during April or the first two weeks of May in the Cyclades, Dodecanese, East Aegean and Sporades island groups. But once the middle of May had passed, rainstorms and completely overcast skies would be rare — visitors typically could expect one day after another of warm, dry and mainly sunny weather until the fall.

Climate patterns seem to have changed in recent years, however, and travellers have been encountering sporadic stormy conditions later in May and into early June too, as bad weather across much of Greece this week has shown.

 We didn’t need rainwear or umbrellas until 2010

On our trips to Athens and various Greek islands between 2004 and 2009, we didn’t encounter any major rainstorms or other inclement weather bad enough to put a damper on a day of sightseeing, hiking or beach activities. We would pack travel umbrellas in our suitcases, but never have to take them out. In fact, we recall only three instances of rain — all in early May 2006, the time of month when unsettled weather still could be expected.

That year, there was some overnight rain on May 11 and 12 while we were visiting Mykonos, but the clouds cleared by the time we got up for breakfast. One week later (on May 18) we were at Maragas beach on Naxos when a late afternoon thunderstorm suddenly blew in from the west. Rain began to sprinkle so we hurried over to the Gorgona Taverna at Agia Anna beach, where we had an early dinner while waiting for the precipitation to stop. Within 90 minutes the sun came back out and gave us a beautiful sunset that evening.

 Stormclouds over Naxos

After the storm: Thunderclouds begin to break up over Paros island  (top) and Naxos following a late afternoon downpour on May 18 2006. We shot this photo from Agia Anna beach on Naxos.

 

Of course, the weather wasn’t perfect the rest of the time during our first five Greek holidays. We did encounter a few days when it was extremely cloudy, like on June 8 2005, when we arrived at Santorini to find the island shrouded in thick, low-hanging clouds that obscured sunset views and lingered into the next morning before dissipating. We also experienced several exceptionally windy days, as well as some very chilly mornings and nights that forced us to wear sweaters and jackets to keep warm. But there wasn’t any horribly bad weather, and the adverse conditions didn’t stop us from fully enjoying the islands.

 Santorini caldera clouds

When we arrived at Santorini on June 8 2005, the island was surrounded by thick clouds that obscured caldera and sunset views that evening. There was no rain, but the clouds hung around until morning. We shot this photo from our terrace at the Phenix Hotel in Imerovigli during a brief break in the clouds.

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Marvellous winter moments on Mykonos

March 4, 2014 / / 2 Comments
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Mykonos Island “when no one’s watching” from Andreas Bekas on Vimeo.

 

Mention Mykonos, and most people instantly imagine sun-scorched rocky hills; crescent-shaped beaches packed end-to-end with people partying under searing sunshine; throngs of tourists swarming the iconic windmills on the hill near Little Venice; gigantic cruise ships docking at both of the island’s ports; and luxurious private yachts dropping anchor in almost every bay. That’s a fairly accurate image of what the island is like during the peak travel months of July and August.

But Mykonos has a completely different look during winter when the island’s 10,000 residents have the beaches and monuments entirely to themselves. The hillsides are verdant with winter flowers and greenery; the quiet beaches are empty of people, lounge chairs and umbrellas; and there’s nary a soul to be seen near the windmills or on the seaside at Little Venice.

 

Spectacular video by Andreas Bekas

In his spectacular time-lapse video Mykonos Island: When no one’s watching, photographer Andreas Bekas captures the Mykonos landscape in moments of peace, quiet, solitude and colour that few tourists ever get to see.

The 2.5-minute video opens with striking sunrise views of the Agios Iakovos chapel near Agios Sostis (which I profiled in a June 10 2013 post), and features scenes including: the five windmills at Alefkandra; the Armenistis lighthouse; the Bonis windmill on the hill above Mykonos Town; vast expanses of green countryside; the blissfully empty beaches at Paraga, Kalfatis and Panormos; the remarkable Paraportiani Church; and a moody view of the Little Venice seafront. The clip concludes with an aerial view of an eerily quiet Mykonos Town and harbourfront at sunset; a star-filled sky above a rustic dovecoat; and tall green grass rustling in wind.

Makes me wish I could take a winter trip to Mykonos!

 

2012 Greek holiday trip report: Mykonos Part 4

March 30, 2013 / / 0 Comments
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stormclouds above Mykonos

A promising patch of blue sky appears above Rinia island on the morning of Friday May 18 2012, while thick grey and jet-black stormclouds gather ominously above Mykonos in this view from the Hotel Tagoo swimming pool deck. 

 

 

Little Venice Mykonos

After two hours of torrential morning downpours completely soaked the island, the rain stopped, letting tourists and passengers from the Celebrity Equinox (left) enjoy their sightseeing at the Little Venice area of Mykonos Town (above)

 

 

rainbow above Mykonos

A brief — but very light — afternoon rainshower gave way to a glorious evening rainbow that arced high in the sky above the island’s Tagoo district …

 

 

Mykonos sunset

… and soon after was followed by a colourful and dramatic sunset

 

 

Friday, May 18

 

Rain, rain, go away: Even a morning of heavy downpours didn’t dampen my spirits on Day 5 of my Mykonos holiday.

When I left my hotel room to go for breakfast, I was shocked by the drastic change in weather from the day before. Strong gusts of very chilly winds were blowing jet-black stormclouds above the Agean, and though there were sunny spots in the sky above Syros, Rinia and other nearby islands, the steadily thickening cloudcover suggested Mother Nature was getting ready to unleash her fury on Mykonos.

In the breakfast room, one of the other guests asked a question I’ve never had to answer before: “What do you recommend doing on a rainy day in Mykonos?” “Read, sleep, go shopping, visit the archaeological museum or just go sit in a coffee shop or taverna and wait for the rain to stop,” I said. I actually wasn’t quite sure what I would do myself.

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