Friday 25 January 2008

Weather of no interest

Since I arrived in Greece after my Christmas holidays in South Norway, nothing interesting happened as regards weather. Cloudy weather, fogs in the mornings, warm temperatures, that lasted many days, due to a High pressure.
That's the reason, that the blog was not updated, since there wasn't anything to write...
Only yesterday the weather changed with some drizzles and strong wind. Some snow appeared above 300m on the mountains, around the city, as a result of a temperature-fall.
However, the temperature will rise again and the weather is already sunny. But a new cold air mass will affect Greece next week and some precipitation is possible.
Although winter has not ended, the weather till now hasn't been that rainy/snowy in Greece...

Monday 7 January 2008

New year starts with snowstorms in Norway (photos)

So, I'm back in Greece now, but I left Norway with great memories. After so many years I saw much snow cover everything, but I was so unlucky, that the most snow fell the day I left. The total snow amount was around 50-70cm! However, I was in Norway during the snowfall that gave 15-20cm of snow and lots of photos will you see.
The first day of the new year started with cloudy weather in Arendal and some interesting wavy formations on the Altocumulus' base.
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The clouds were getting even darker and lower till the winter's first snowflakes started falling from the sky! Because of the last week's frozen weather and the low temperatures (-11oC), the ground was still cold, so the snow was covering the ground immediately at 17:10.
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The dry snowflakes were getting larger and by the end of this snowfall around 2-5cm was the total snow amount, so nothing to worry about... The temperature during the snowfall was -0,6oC...+0,1oC.
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Next morning the snow started melting, because the temperature was a bit above 0oC and the max around +2oC. The wasn't any precipitation, but for one moment small hails started falling making noise.
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Fortunately, it started getting colder after sunset and few snowflakes also appeared later at 19:00. However, later in the evening the temperature was falling lower and it was finally undulating (?) around +/-0oC, so got the snowfalls really severe combined with really strong winds coming from East! The snow wasn't covering the ground yet, because of +0,1oC and the wet streets. However, suddenly around 21:00 a really strong snow shower reduced the visibility and in some seconds only everything was covered of small hard snowflakes, which hit me on my face. Not many centimetres at first, but this snowstorm made the start.
 
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The snowfalls' intensity was constant and some severe snow showers continued to appear whole night. The snowflakes were getting larger, too. 
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Next day, everything was beautiful and white and the snow amount was for sure over 5cm. The temperature was -1oC during the day so there was no fear if the snow would have melt. Actually, the max temperature was +0,2oC at 01:45. But it's worth to mention, that I was freezing much more than my first day in Norway, when the temperature was -10oC, due to the severe winds. 
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But something that made sense was that it was snowing while the sky was blue between the clouds. The Stratocumulus clouds looked like these I see in March, so I thought that there must have been instability in the atmosphere. Perhaps, that's why there were so many severe showers. 

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Later at noon I had a walk in Arendal center... 

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...and during the afternoon snowstorms appeared again and it was really harsh to walk against the wind. 
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This is the protestant church "Trefoldighets kirken" in Arendal center during a snowshower/snowstorm. 


So after these snow showers (on/off weather) the total snow amount was around 10-15cm.

Unfortunately, the next day (or even better next night) I had to leave Norway and return back to Greece.
It wasn't snowing during Friday, but it was still windy.
But, after what I saw and what I heard the snow amount on Saturday reached 50-80cm!!! Of course! The best must happen, when I'm not there! I was very unlucky with that, but I'm not disappointed, because last time I saw 10cm of snow was some years ago and the snow in Norway has already melted now.