Greece Braces for Snow, Frigid Temperatures

Greece is bracing for a period of heavy snow and frigid temperatures beginning on Wednesday as gusts of cold air are making their way to the country from Northern Europe.

The weather phenomenon, called Filippos, is expected to bring a cold spell and snowfall to the country until Sunday.

According to the Hellenic National Meteorological Service, Filippos will bring about frigid temperatures for the season, and some areas will be hit with heavy snowfall.

Beginning on early Wednesday morning, mountainous regions across Greece, particularly in Epirus, Macedonia, and Thrace, will likely have heavy snow.

Snow to hit mountainous regions across Greece

Areas of Thessaly, central Greece, and mountainous areas in Crete will likely experience moderate snowfall, and it may snow in the Sporades islands, Evia, and in the northern Aegean on Wednesday night.

On Thursday, snow is expected to fall in Crete, the Aegean islands, Thessaly, central Greece, the Peloponnese, Macedonia, and Thrace.

Snowfall will continue in the mountainous regions of Greece, Evia, the Sporades, the Cyclades and Aegean islands, and Crete through to the weekend.

The weather is expected to become more frigid on Tuesday evening, and it has already begun to snow in some areas in Northern Greece.

Country hit with heavy snow in January

A heavy snowstorm, called “Elpis,” hit Greece in late January, blanketing the country in a dense layer of snow that brought Greece to a halt for a number of days.

After the major snowstorm paralyzed the country for three days, a top Greek scientist warned that Greece could expect more heavy snow in the future due to climate change.

Dr. Christos Zeferos, Professor of Physics and Meteorology at the Academy of Athens, stated to television network MEGA soon after the storm that phenomena such as “Elpis” will become more and more common due to the changing climate.

“There are people who say that all of this is natural. The fact that the frequency and intensity of these meteorological events are increasing is not random. It is happening within a few decades. Climate change is here, it is with us, and we need to learn how to live with it,” he stated.

The storm caused chaos around the country, particularly in Athens, where thousands of motorists were stranded on the city’s main ring road for hours due to snow.

Snow is common in the mountainous regions of Greece, but such heavy snowfall is rare in Athens and the Cyclades Islands, which were covered in snow for days after the storm.

“Such snowstorms used to happen ever 40 to 50 years (in Greece), but they will occur much more frequently, and it would be good for us to begin to adjust to these new circumstances… We are at the point that whenever experts warn us that a major meteorological event will happen, we must quickly apply the appropriate measures,” Zeferos continued.