We had an interesting week, here in Thessaloniki, but the rainfalls were once again so weak, that the precipitation hardly overtook (?) 1mm....
Am interesting phenomenon happened on Sunday morning. It was drizzling during the morning and when it stopped everything was covered with a thin layer of mud. That day a jetstream transferred dust and sand from Northern Africa through the highest attitudes of atmosphere to Greece. At the same time, I noticed a weird cloud over Greece, which temperature was really low and its form and shape was very strange!
Here is a morning satellite image of this strange cloud.
From http://www.sat24.com/
And this image shows the temperature of the cloud. As you see the cloud's temperature is extremely low and this means that it was really high in the atmosphere!
From http://www.meteoliguria.it/MSG6H/EURO_108.jpg
Next day, while everything was dirty after the mud rain, a new record was set. At ~19:30 in Thessaloniki the atmospheric pressure was 988,7 hPa and the last time the pressure was so low was in 1968 at 989,6 hPa. Such low pressures are seldom in Greece, but in Northern Europe, during storms they are mostly normal.
However, the low pressure didn't mean storm at all! The weather was sunny and warm till a cold front was getting closer from West. It began to be windy and I noticed at the satellite some thunderstorms following. But...the cold front quickly weakened and it ended with some drizzle...again...
Next day, 25th March was the Greek national day and I had to paticipate in the local parade with my school. The day was sunny and we were waiting till the parade would start. Fortunately, we were next to the sea and I could watch every cloud!
The atmosphere was clean and mt Olympus was clearly seen with clouds covering the tops.
Some minutes later the clouds grew thicker and got darker.
Some "rain curtains" appeared around the mountains.
Those rain curtains were getting closer and closer...
...while the sun was shining some kilometres away.
It started drizzling at noon, but there were no electrical phenomena and the precipitation was not even more than 0,5mm... The dark clouds quickly passed, but the rain curtains were "hanging" even in the edge of the clouds.
The whole thing seemed to be some Cumulus congestus, something I realized when the sky cleared up a bit.
But while the clouds were leaving a Cumulonimbus' ambolt revealed!
So, the rain continued around mt Olympus.
But , while the "mini-storm" was going towars South, a sudden severe wind made a mess, the roads got full of rubish and dust and the sea was white because of the waves that had formed!
The sudden wind had also stopped after a while and the weather was calm again. The only interesting was some Cumulus West of Thessaloniki...
...which developing to a Cumulonimbus cloud.
Some more rain curtains under the Cb.
The Cb soon disolved and the rest of the day was combined with Cumulus clouds and some Virga later in the day.
No rain since then, no thunderstorm since then (and since last year), no interest since then... Wonder how worse the weather can be...
