Rare early October snow blankets Greece’s mountains

File photo.

The archetypal snowfalls of the play person arrived successful Greece, covering high-altitude areas of Mount Olympus, Kaimaktsalan, and Falakro connected the nighttime from Wednesday to Thursday. Snow screen was expected to grow further Thursday nighttime into Friday arsenic temperatures dropped sharply.

“Early October snow is highly uncommon successful Greece,” Stavros Dafis, a researcher astatine the National Observatory of Athens’ METEO group, told Kathimerini.

According to Dafis, lone 4 erstwhile years – 1983, 1989, 1995, and 2002 – recorded likewise debased temperatures successful aboriginal October, though it is unclear whether snow fell then. The past somewhat extended October snowfall occurred successful precocious October 2017.

It remains uncertain whether this unusual early-season snow is an anomaly oregon a motion of a wetter, snowier winter ahead.

Long-term trends amusement a wide diminution successful snowfall crossed Greece, with METEO researchers noting that betwixt 1991 and 2020, the duration of snow screen decreased by astir 1.5 days per year.