Weather and Clouds

50cm of snow! (photos)

2009-02-15T06:30:00.001+02:00

Although the middle of January was not so cold, the end of that month and the beginning of February had many days with snowfalls till Saturday 7/2, when the amount of snow finally reached 50cm here in the coastline! In the mainland the snow is much more! Here are some photos from neighborhood.

The temperature is negative all day long, but because of sunny weather the snow melts in sunshine and froze again after sunset so big icicles form.

The temperatures at night get down to -15oC, so the sea and the lakes have frost. Even a small waterfall close to my house has frost!

(Summer)

(11th February)

If the cold weather will continue, is not sure since the graphs show a temperature raise for Arendal...

http://www.meteociel.fr/cartes_obs/gens_display.php?ext=1&lat=58.460&lon=8.767

There have been severe snowfalls in Oslo, too causing many problems like flight delays. Many photos from the snowfalls in Norway's capital can be found here:

http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/1.6470821

http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/1.6438824

http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/1.6471561

Frozen landscapes (photos)

2009-01-17T17:41:00.001+02:00

Well, I hadn't the time to post so much this month, but I had the chance to take some beautiful photos!

The new year started with very low temperatures, but there was no precipitation, except of Sunday 4/1. All lakes and most of the sea areas, where the water was calm, got frost and dry snow covered the ice! At the same day, Hovden was the coldest place in Norway with -28,8oC, while the temperature around Arendal was down to -14oC!

I was ice skating with a friends on a lake that Sunday and took some beautiful photos.

Even some small waterfalls froze!

The same temperatures were experienced even in UK, France and Germany with frozen rivers, lakes and seas.

http://www.tv2veret.no/article2497415.ece

Weird Cirrus formation-like a tornado! (photo)

2009-01-02T23:52:00.001+02:00

26 December 2008, Arendal-South Norway.
A strange formation of Cirrus clouds, that looked like tornado a cold day. I don't know what it really is... Maybe just a vigra or something else?

I don't think it's something important, but if you know please comment.

White landscapes (photos)

2008-12-10T01:04:00.001+02:00

12-14cm was the snow amount in Arendal, but although the snow was laying on the ground it was slowly melting due to the temperature at +0oC. So, after the temperature has been negative the last days the melted snow has frost again making the streets really dangerous. I, personally, have slipped many times while walking and I also fell once hurting myself...! Many car accidents have also happened with injured people. A 40 year old woman lost her life in Southern Norway.

http://www.yr.no/nyheter/1.6342986

http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/sorlandet/1.6342940

Some snow is possible in the end of the week, after Friday.

Rain became snow!!! (photos)

2008-12-05T16:34:00.001+02:00

As soon as November left, December welcomed us with some snow in the morning!

It was just a thin white layer, but it managed to make the landscape beautiful.

The sun also appeared at noon, but it soon got cloudy again and it started snowing. I measured around 5cm of snow at night.

The snow started to melt on Tuesday (2/12), but it didn’t disappear. So, since the temperature was below 0oC on Wednesday, the snow remained until Thursday, when some snow came again. However, it was just two snowshowers. The first one came at ~17:00 and the snow was very dry, like caster sugar, although the snowflakes had a round shape. The snow of the second shower was normally wet.

However, a precipitation zone was coming towards Norway from Denmark, but it was not sure whether it was snow or rain… Meteorologists had forecasted rain in the coastline for Friday (5/12) and the snow limit would be up to 200m. I didn’t want to admit this forecast, till I suddenly saw the temperature raise just before midnight over 0oC…

I set the mobile alarm at 4:00 in the morning to check out if it would be snowing or not… When I looked out of the window I could barely see that it was raining and I was so angry, that I fell asleep again…

Now after the sad surprise I had at night, I had to look outside if the snow had disappeared… What I had seen at 9:00 surprised me happily, because I didn’t expect the rain turning to snow. The temperature had fallen something also unexpected! The temperature was at 0oC, so it was such a luck that it was not raining. And although I noticed the snow was slowly melting, snowfalls keep covering everything.

The interesting is that in Kristiansand, a town 75km from here, it seems that it’s raining instead of snowing…!

http://www.webcamsinnorway.com/webcams.php?viewcam=783

http://www.webcamsinnorway.com/webcams.php?viewcam=52

Webcams in Arendal:

http://www.agderposten.no/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=webcam

http://www.webcamsinnorway.com/webcams.php?viewcam=128

I have not measured the snow amount yet, but I will let you know in the next post with photos and videos additionally.

Snow everywhere in Europe (also in Greece) except of Norway!

2008-11-24T02:12:00.001+02:00

Another sunny day in Norway with some clouds in North... The temperature has been below 0oC everywhere in Scandinavia, so the last days' snow has not melt yet. However, it didn't snow at all in Southern Norway, so there was nothing to melt...

There is snow in most areas of Northwest and East Europe. It has snowed today (23/11) even in Greece!!! In Northern Greece the snow limit is down at ~100m and it has been snowing around the city of Thessaloniki down to 200m!

http://i530.photobucket.com/albums/dd344/kostas2004thes/100_1354.jpg

http://i530.photobucket.com/albums/dd344/kostas2004thes/100_1338.jpg

http://i530.photobucket.com/albums/dd344/kostas2004thes/100_1330.jpg

http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/7168/dsc02461dh6.jpg

http://i33.tinypic.com/2mwdqpg.jpg

http://i33.tinypic.com/fu3tk6.jpg

This won't last for long, though, since the temperature will return to its normal tomorrow... The same will happen in Norway. Precipitation will finally come by Wednesday... the same day when temperature will raise... So, the precipitation will unfortunately come in the form of rain and it seems that no snow will come soon...

Something also interesting is the Depression moving from the Black sea North to Finland, which has been getting deeper and has reached now even 956hPa!

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/topkarten/fsavneur.html

Cold weather both in North and South Europe

2008-11-21T21:21:00.001+02:00

After another storm in Norway called "Vera" (Trøndelag) with winds as severe as a hurricane's (gust up to 38,5m/s)...

http://www.yr.no/nyheter/1.6317683

http://www.yr.no/nyheter/1.6318784

http://www.tv2veret.no/article2413818.ece

...a cold air mass from North pole is about to make Europeans freeze. This air mass is easily seen by the cloud formations and their direction to South.

http://www.sat24.com/frame.php?html=view&country=eu&sat=ir

Notice also the Cumulonimbus clouds West of Norway. Some of those has already given snow showers to Stavanger, Kristiansund, Bergen and other towns of Western Norway today (21/11). And if you see the map of snow coverage in Norway, the Southern areas are the only without snow...

http://www.senorge.no//mappage.aspx?layerid=sd&archive=day&layergroup=snow&date=21.11.2008&XMIN=-472725.5773809523&YMIN=6438682&XMAX=1480197.5773809524&YMAX=7943687&

The whole country will have negative temperatures tomorrow (22/11) and some snow, that won't come to the region of Agder...

http://www.yr.no/nyheter/1.6318709

Greece won't have much different temperatures than Norway tomorrow! It's going to be warm and windy again in the morning, but in the evening the wind direction will turn to North and the temperature fall will begin. The snow limit will get down to 300-500m in North Greece and there is a possibility to snow along the coastlines of Northeast Greece on Saturday night. Sunday will be cold all over Greece with some phenomena, but the weather will soon get sunny and warmer again on Monday.

Athens forecast:

http://www.weatheronline.gr/cgi-app/reports?LANG=gr&MENU=213

Thessaloniki forecast:

http://www.weatheronline.gr/cgi-app/reports?LANG=gr&MENU=214

Greece forecast:

http://www.weatheronline.gr/cgi-app/reports?LANG=gr&MENU=212&FILE=grfoc

Hail and winds caused problems

2008-11-10T23:36:00.001+02:00

A low pressure Northwest of Norway formed some Cumulonimbus rotating around it and some of those stroke the Western and Southern parts of Norway Sunday night (10/11). After a constant rainfall on Sunday, the sun suddenly appeared in the afternoon and some Cumulus and Cumulonimbus clouds could be seen.

However, those clouds were not getting closer until it started to rain at 22:30. Also one lightning made a quite loud rumble, but there must not have been many more in the area.

Next day, my grandparents told me that there was a severe hailstorm, that covered everything with hail at night, while I was unfortunately sleeping! They also said that they had heard more rumbles. I heard the same thing on the radio and I found some more info about it here:

http://www.fvn.no/varet/article625477.ece

The photos are taken in Kristiansand, a city 71km Southwest of here, so many areas must have got affected by hail.

Electricity cuts have also happened because of severe winds and thunder.

http://www.fvn.no/nyheter/article625348.ece

The wind gusts here in Arendal were once again high, up to 25-26m/s.

Storm with 22,9m/s in Eastern Norway, too.

http://www.yr.no/nyheter/1.6302767

June-temperatures in November (Greece)

2008-11-04T20:07:00.001+02:00

Although the winter is getting closer the temperature doesn't seem to bother about it in Greece.

There is over 20oC everywhere in Greece and the first day of November found many areas of Southern Greece with temperatures up to 31oC!!! Trees have bloomed for second time this year and mosquitos keep annoying people and make the sleep difficult.

The first snow! (photos)

2008-10-30T04:15:00.001+02:00

So, as I wrote in the previous post, the snow was a big surprise here in Arendal. There were forecasts saying about snowfalls over 200m, but not down to 0m, something which happened Wednesday 30/10 morning. Such unsuccessful forecasts are always acceptable! =)

Unfortunately, the snowfalls didn't last longer than 2-3 hours due to the temperature rise. When it started to snow, the intensity was quite low and the streets just became wet.

But the snowfall soon got stronger making the snow lay on the grass, on the trees, on the cars, on the roofs and on some streets.

I was looking sadly the brighter clouds towards the sea, worrying about whether the snow would stop or not...

The snow didn't stop, but the snowfall turned into showers and hail started also to fall.

At 12:30 the sun suddenly appeared and it was snowing at the same time. And the clouds, that revealed, were actually Cumulus clouds and when I looked the satellite picture I noticed, that Cumulonimbus clouds were coming from Southeast. One of those, out in the sea.

Except of the morning snowfall, some snowflakes appeared the same day at midnight, too. You can watch some of the snowfalls on the video below.

Many rain showers followed the rest of the day, but another big surprise was the big Cumulonimbus clouds with mamatus!

I hadn't the time to look for lightnings, but I'll get mad if there were none. But although I had no time for lightning observations in the afternoon, I saw a distant thunder at ~20:30 to South, in the sea.

So if the snow has come early in Norway, what about UK?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1081135/One-dead-thousands-power-October-snow-London-74-YEARS-Arctic-blast-sweeps-UK.html

An unexpected surprise!

2008-10-29T12:59:00.001+02:00

There was no snow, when I woke up early in the morning, so I was almost sure, that I had to forget about it...

However, at ~9:30 snowflakes started falling, but since the temperature was over 0oC the ground was only wet... until the snowfall's intensity became severe and the snowflakes big. Trees, grass, roofs and some streets became white, while the temperature was around +0/+1oC. After an hour of snowfalls, snow-showers started with some hail, too.

The snow became sleet and the sun is shining now with the same temperature. I don't know whether the precipitation will stop, but after looking the radar and the satellite picture, I think there will be a continuity. But maybe not with snow, but with rain...

http://sat24.com/frame.php?html=view&country=scan

http://www.yr.no/sted/Norge/Aust-Agder/Arendal/Arendal/radar.html

And... if you see the satellite... you'll probably notice that those clouds are Cumulonimbus clouds... I can see one of those in the sea right now. By the way, it's the first time I see Cumulonimbus cloud with 0oC.

Photos and videos will be posted tomorrow!

Storm "Ulrik" (Snowfalls will come later...) (photos)

2008-10-28T13:23:00.001+02:00

After another cyclone causing problems in Norway with severe winds, the weather this week will be slightly better, but also colder...

However, I will see no snowflakes as I hoped... GFS's last runs show the temperature for this week much higher now, than it did some days ago. Max temperature will be around at 6-7oC and min may fall under 0oC if the nights will be cloudless. And this will probably happen, since the only rainy days will be Wednesday and Thursday, but the precipitation will not be as much as it was forecasted last week. After that, a High pressure will cover the Scandinavian area.

But the place where the precipitation will be quite much, is Middle and Northern Norway, because a polar Low will come and give some snowfalls and strong winds the following days.

Saturday afternoon, clouds started covering the sky and suddenly it got very windy.

The clouds were getting steady darker making the sea looking black. Severe winds continued making loud noises whole night and it stopped no sooner than Sunday early morning. The wind rate was around 30m/s and in Western Norway, where the storm was even worse, the wind gusts reached even hurricane level! The meteorological institute came out with an extreme weather-warning on TV and gave the cyclone the name "Ulrik". The interest thing is that the Low's shape looks much like with the hurricane that stroke Norway in 1992!

http://www.yr.no/nyheter/1.6280892

And after the storm, the sun was shining and Cumulonimbus appeared again over the sea on Sunday and Monday 26&27/10.

No electrical phenomena again, but 2 showers came to Arendal Monday afternoon. It was two Cumulonimbus, that were about to disappear, so their dissolving caused the rainfalls and there were lots of vigra to see.

As you can see in Monday's satellite picture below, Arendal in South Norway is not in an beneficial position in the case of Cumulonimbus... Thunderstorms come from Atlantic ocean striking Western Norway, but not the Southern areas, because they get "stuck" in the mountains, so the only exit for the Cumulonimbus clouds is the sea between Norway and Denmark...

And in the summer thunderstorms form usually in the mainland and not in the sea...

So... when do thunderstorms appear in the coastline? It's many years since the last time I had experienced a severe thunderstorm in Arendal... There was only 2-3 weak thunderstorms here this year with few rumbles. And not at night, so there was no lightning to see...

Cold, but Cumulonimbus keep developing (photos)

2008-10-24T14:01:00.005+03:00

Winter is not far away and we'll get a taste of it in the end of the month. Max temperature in Southern Norway will get down to 5oC and the min under 0oC. In many areas the temperature will fall even lower, so the precipitation will appear as snow over 600m in South and probably along the coastlines in Northern Norway. However, I hope to see some snowflakes late at night, here in Arendal, too. It's a bit early to be sure, but with temperatures under 0oC at night it won't be impossible.

During cloudless nights the temperature has been down to 0oC making the ground frost and rime form.

But although the weather is cold now, there are still some Cumulonimbus to see like those on Tuesday 21/10.

After a shower in the afternoon...

...some mamatus were seen in an ambolt.

Something I don't understand is why the Cumulonimbus clouds, that come here, are always about to die... Perhaps, when they come from the warm sea to the colder land, they get weakened.

The weather was sunny on Wednesday after some showers in the morning and some isolated weakened Cb clouds were crossing the sea between Norway and Denmark during sunset.

Apart from some nice, but cold days some Low pressures coming in from the Atlantic ocean have been responsible for days with rainfalls and severe winds, such as Monday 20/10 and Thursday 23/10.

In West Norway the rainfalls were extremely severe, that a lanslip was caused!

http://www.yr.no/nyheter/1.6272352

Storm and 36m/s wind gusts in Southern Norway! (photos)

2008-10-06T14:08:00.010+03:00

After quite many days with cloudless sky, the weather is back to normal here in Southern Norway with some rainfalls and lots of interesting clouds.
Like this wavy cloud, Altocumulus undulatus.

A wonderful sunset also decorated the sky with pink colors last week!

And although the temperature has not been higher than 15oC lately, there was instability in the atmosphere, which was responsible for Cumulus formations.

Some of the clouds had a shape of Cumulonimbus, but the size was much smaller. There was no electricity of course, but I always get so confused with those Norwegian clouds. How is it possible, that clouds have that shape without being a thundercloud? Like these on the photos, which had already dissolved.

Something I like here in Southern Norway is that Northern Denmark's clouds can be easily seen! For example, in this photo (taken on Thursday, 2/10) the shadow of a Cumulonimbus can be noticed behind the Cumulus clouds.

The rain we had on Friday 3/10, came in the form of showers. The only shower, that's worth mentioning is the last one, as it was getting dark.
A big cloud mass was getting closer from NW.

So, it started raining for some minutes.

The cloud mass must have got bigger, while leaving, making the E horizon really dark! The only thing anyone would expect of those dark clouds is thunders, but there was nothing to see...

However, some beautiful Cumulus were suddenly formed in front of this cloud mass, which had a strange gray/brown/yellow color.

Another sudden Cumulus formation, was seen towards the sea. And this one was developing so quickly, that a pileus had been formed on the top of it.

The weekend's weather was even worse due to a Low pressure, which is somewhere in middle Norway now. It started raining Saturday evening and severe winds at 28m/s made the whole scene look like a storm. Actually it was a strom, that meteorologists didn't forecast, and it was stronger than the "Tuva"-storm in February. The wind gusts reached even 36m/s (~129km/h), which is the limit between the huriccane kategories 1 and 2! Numberous of trees have also fallen and there was flood in some areas. No name was given to the storm, since meteorologists didn't expect this weather. Two lightnings also appeared that night!
Photos and info in Norwegian here:
http://www.yr.no/nyheter/1.6248375
http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/ostfold/1.6248661?index=5#image-gallery-content
http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/ostfold/1.6247984
http://www.tv2veret.no/article2276404.ece

The temperature has also fallen. Meteorologists keep warning people to be careful on the road, because wet roads can get icy in the morning. The sky was cloudless last night, so the temperature has been below 0oC in many areas.
The first snowfalls has also been down to 400m, so the snow amount is up to 10-15cm in the mountains, here in Southern Norway.
In Northern Norway the temperature has been around 0 - +5oC these days and the winter has already set in with snowfalls, strong winds and temperatures down to -15 - -10oC in Spitzbergen.

A little early for winter, but I hope snowfalls won't be delayed in areas next to the sea.

Sunny in Norway, rainy in Greece!

2008-09-26T16:49:00.002+03:00

The weather in Southern Norway is wonderful and although it's cold at night, most Norwegians go with T-shirts during the day as the sun is shining all day! The temperature is up to 16oC and even up to 20oC in some areas!
So that's how weather is in Norway, whereas Low pressures has given Greece plenty of rain and thunderstorms lately and will also continue next days. It was about time this happened, because they needed these rainfalls!

Norwegian Cumulonimbus (photos)

2008-09-17T15:43:00.007+03:00

September started with quite good weather, but plenty of showers were interrupting the sunshine.

Some dark clouds were also getting closer, where I also heard only one rumble from!

Thunderstorms in Norway are really irritating. It's the only place, where almost all of Cb clouds I've seen this summer have made only one rumble heard each! The max number of rumbles I've heard this year is about 10-15 and unfortunately not at night... It's some years now since the last time Southern Norway experienced thunderstorm with many thunders...
After sunset, the Cumulonimbus clouds are often being transfered over the sea in Norway and that was obvious on 3rd September.

And new Cumulus were following, also growing up to Cumulonimbus after a while.

A “dead” Cb was getting closer from West and it was still able to give some rain.

This happened the perfect time, because a wonderful rainbow was created!

And the combination of rain and sun was so strong, that a second rainbow appeared above the first one!

The night was about to come, but before this, the Cb clouds made a spectacular view having this pink color.

When the sky got darker, I was looking for Cbs to find out if they do have electrical phenomena. Well, I observed this Cb cloud...

...but there was no lightning to see in it, except of the flashes I noticed coming from some clouds close to it, but there were only 2-3 of them again...

There weren't many Cbs to see next day, but lots of Cumulus clouds coming from the sea were giving also lots of showers. So, the weather was both sunny and rainy.

Some Cu appeared unexpectedly in the evening, but they were too weak to form any rain.

About ten days ago, early morning, a thunderstorm passed over Arendal, but-as unlucky I always am-the rumbles could be heard after it passed the area I live in... There were some louder noises this time, but there were not more than 10-15 of course... The cloud basis was indicating the unstable atmosphere.

And these were the only interesting clouds till today. After that day, the clouds were really boring and made you feel derpresed....
It's also cold now. When the sky is cloudless, the temperature goes down to 5oC at night, already now, in September...
Well... have a nice winter and plenty of snowfalls, then... Thunderstorms have to wait some months now...

6 days with rain! (photos)

2008-09-15T22:18:00.004+03:00

I surely understand how weather affects human psychology...
After having nothing to do, due to heavy rainfalls, I was so bored and was feeling really depressed! From the beginning of September and till 11/9 there was no day without rain! The month hasn't come to the end and the precipitation has already reached 108,6mm!

Fortunately, a High Pressure is moving towards Scandinavia, so sunny weather will hopefully be this week's main characteristic. And something I have noticed is that when the weather is good in Northern Europe, then bad weather is expected in Southern areas and the opposite again.
And that's happening also this time. As we Norwegians are having sunny days now, in Greece unstable atmosphere will give severe thunderstorms next days. It's a cold front which have caused big Cumulonimbus clouds in Spain, Italy and in other Mediterranean countries. Well, it was about time, since Northern Greece has experienced a long period with drought and high temperatures. The last time it rained in Thessaloniki was 4 July!

There weren't many days with over 40oC this summer in Greece, as last year (apart from the mainland, where temperature is always higher), but the temperature has been over 34oC constantly for many weeks something exhausting for urban citizens!
But they will surely get their goodies in the coming period!

"Weather & Clouds" changes location!

2008-09-11T18:50:00.002+03:00

It's many days ago since the last time I updated the blog, but big changes have happened lately.
I finished school this year in Greece, but ufortunately I didn't pass in Thessaloniki's university at Physics. This was my only choice in order to study meteorology later, so I had to give exams one more time if I wanted to be a student of Aristotelio Panepistimio.
But, that would be exhausting and greek university isn't known to be that good, either. So, after having heard some friends' opinions and advice I decides that it would be best to study meteorology in Norway.
So, I am writing from Norway now, where I have been since the end of August. I decided to wait studying meteorology next year and learn the norwegian language even better instead. So even though I speak norwegian quite well, I have started school now watching norwegian lessons and I will ask for participating in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry (Realfag).
I live with my grandparents for now in Arendal, South Norway, but next month the my mother and sister are coming to Norway, too, so it won't be only me moving to this country...
Next years seem to be interesting and Norway is a country known for severe weather and for being visited by Low pressures from Atlantic. However... thunderstorms, like those in Greece, are something I will miss...
So from now on... Weather photos and descriptions from Arendal, South Norway!

Cumulonimbus, Cumulus & shower time lapse video!

2008-08-17T00:12:00.004+03:00

Cumulonimbus clouds in Scandinavia do not appear as often as they do in Southern areas of Europe and they don't have the same lifetime or intensity. Another bad thing is that they form easier over mainland, than sea... So, it’s not many thunderstorms Southern Norway experiences, in contrast to areas North of Oslo, where they have had some nice thunderstorms this summer.
However, two weeks ago, on 3 August, the unstable atmosphere formed some interesting clouds. From the early morning, some small Cumulonimbus clouds started coming from the mainland...

... giving some showers, but without electrical phenomena and their duration was very short, too.

The time lapse video can show exactly what happened that day.

Something else interesting was that the same evening, the instability was moved over the sea, where new Cumulus clouds had started forming.

It makes me sad, that thunderstorms in Norway are not as spectacular and severe as in Greece, but the positive is that there are plenty of clouds to photograph all year long-like the nocticulent clouds I wrote about.

Nocticulent clouds! (photos)

2008-08-17T00:02:00.003+03:00

It was 2am Saturday 26/7, while I was arriving home after a day with no weather interest. But, suddenly I noticed something strange happening toward the North horizon. You know the blue, green and yellow colors that appear on the horizon, after the sun has set? Well, I saw the same colors behind some trees at that time, so I was very confused, because the sky was dark and the sun had already set some hours earlier. I ran to a place with better sight and although it took some time to understand the phenomenon, I figured out that it was nocticulent clouds! Those clouds are usually very high in the sky, at a height of ~30km and can be seen after the sun has set.

It was a beautiful view-the sky was black and dark, but the horizon was bright because of the nocticulent clouds!
More info about those beautiful clouds can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctilucent_clouds
http://www.cloudappreciationsociety.org/gallery/index.php?x=browse&category=24&pagenum=1

Water sprout in Norway! (photos)

2008-08-04T15:38:00.004+03:00

Sunday 20th July, was a big day for Arendal. It was the Norwegian Grand Prix offshore boat race and everyone went to the sea to watch the whole thing and so did I.
The sky was cloudy with Cirrus and some Cumulus congestus were seen over mainland...

... whereas in Northern Denmark the sky was cloudless, so Cumulonimbus were developing much easier. Some appeared over the sea, too.

As soon as the Cirrus clouds disappeared and the sun warmed the ground, some small Cumulus were formed plus some suspicious clouds towards the sea.

It seemed to be a Cumulonimbus getting closer. I could also see rain curtains under the cloud.

That Cumulonimbus was about to die, something I noticed from the ambolt...
…
...but behind those Alto-clouds some new Cumulus tops were growing.

So, it was a cloud system coming closer, but remained above the sea.

And suddenly I saw something going downward back of the Tromøy island. It was a funnel cloud over the sea, which means a water sprout!

The whole phenomenon lasted some minutes and a slight rotation can also be seen on this time lapse video I have recorded.

At the same location, I saw that it began to rain heavily and clouds with low basis were being formed.

Later in the evening, it started raining lightly for some minutes in Arendal, too.

After, reading what the Norwegian meteorological institute said on http://yr.no another water sprout appeared that day in South Norway. Water sprouts are not uncommon in Europe, but this summer there were pretty many funnel clouds that have been observed in Norway.
http://www.yr.no/ver-nytt/1.6147045
http://met.no/?module=Articles;action=Article.publicShow;ID=1027
http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/ostfold/1.6147059

Thunderstorms after hot weather!

2008-07-31T15:01:00.002+03:00

2 & 4 July 2008, Thessaloniki - Macedonia, Greece.
After two weeks of hot weather and temperature being over 35oC some severe thunderstorms came to give an end to this boring weather.
However, the rest of July was also warm, except of the last days, when the weather was a little cooler.

June, starting with thunderstorms, ending with hot weather

2008-07-03T19:51:00.004+03:00

Hello again. I‘ve finished with exams now, but I still don’t have internet at home, so I still can’t update the blog so often.
But the first days of June were really exciting, so I have to show some photos.
Huge Cumulonimbus appeared in the afternoon of 1 June. The Cumulonimbus of the photo below was in Bulgaria and even though it could be seen in Thessaloniki. One friend of mine asked surprisingly: “How can this cloud be in Bulgaria, when I see it above me?”

Towering Cumulus and distant Cumulonimbus appeared next days, too.
However, 7th June was a really “explosive” day! Cumulus could be seen everywhere and there was no doubt that thunderstorms would appear later.

As I was watching those beautiful clouds, I noticed the West horizon getting darker. And when the low clouds, that made this beautiful scene, ...

... dissolved, an ambolt appeared very high in the sky around at 18:30.

It was a multicell, which was moving extremely slow-almost immovable. But, in front of it new Towering Cumulus were formed and because of the ambolt above them they had got a strange blue colour making a spectacular show and the lighting “mysterious”, that warned about was going to happen.

At the same time I noticed a tiny rainbow to Northeast…
PHOTO
… and another thunderstorm to East.

As the sky was getting darker, distant lightnings and thunders were seen from the West southwest horizon till Northeast! The area, where thunders were striking, was enormous and the frequency was also very high, which reached even 324 strikes/minute!!
At 21:15 a shelf cloud was getting closer and after passing above me, it started raining and being windy and rumbling and lightening.

Many electricity cuts were provoked as the thunders could be seen everywhere during night. The multicell was leaving, but new distant Cumulonimbus were formed, which affected mostly areas around mt. Olympus and Southern areas of Thessaloniki.

No thunderstorm ended sooner than dawn. Electricity cuts were provoked in most areas of Thessaloniki, roads closed due to mud and floods, hail destroyed cultivations, trees fell because of severe winds and many other problems happened in Macedonia that night.
Next morning Cumulus were everywhere again and it was obvious, that we would not avoid another thunderstorm.
When I watched the lightning detector and the satellite image in the afternoon, I noticed the course of the yesterday’s multicell. In 18 hours the course was: from Thessaloniki South to Chalkidiki, then North again to Stavros, East of Thessaloniki, to Kavala and Thasos, then to Thraki and finally it reached in Constantinople, where the multicell dissolved. A really big distance and a long lifetime!
The thunderstorm, that affected Thessaloniki that day, appeared at the same location, Northwest. New Cumulus from West were also developing really quickly as they were approaching, getting as high as the Cb next to them.

There were plenty of beautiful thunders that lightened up the whole cloud and it started raining over midnight, although the thunderstorm wasn’t that severe this time.

I made a video of those two days showing the spectacular phenomena I experienced!

Some thunderstorms followed also next days around Thessaloniki, but a nice one came 5 days later. Dark clouds, rain curtains and a shelf cloud over Thermaikos gulf made the thunderstorm look dangerous.

Suddenly, I noticed north of the city a brown cloud over the buildings around the harbour. Severe wind gusts were made under the shelf cloud and were going through the city.

A nice time lapse of the shelf cloud getting quickly closer.

Another thunderstorm followed, but they both affected mostly the northern areas of Thessaloniki. The ambolt of the last one, after being dissolved, it made a beautiful sunset.

The thunders that I captured next day were really fascinating, but they were totally unexpected! The thunderstorm was distant, so it didn’t rain so much. However, I could see flashes everywhere all night long.

As it is said, unexpected thunderstorms are best and that happened also in 18 June, when hot weather had already begun. As the temperature was around 35oC, after noticing some Altocumulus castellanus at noon, a very local thunderstorm followed in the evening with loud thunders and heavy rain, although in the beginning it seemed like it would be a dry thunderstorm.

The thunderstorm was really helpful, because it made the temperature fall from 31oC to 26oC only in some minutes!
These were the most interesting days of June, which I enjoyed, but the end didn’t make me as happy as the start. After these thunderstorms hot weather followed with temperatures over 34oC almost all days and I don’t remember another time so high temperatures being recorded for so many days. It’s over 2 weeks now since the first time the temperature was over 33oC and even 38oC in some areas of Greece and unfortunately it seems that high temperatures will continue...

Thunderstorm season! (photos)

2008-04-29T23:39:00.005+03:00

Orthodox Easter is past, May is near and the thunderstorm season has started, something that can be seen in the photos I have taken.

Let's start with a time lapse video of some Cumulus clouds North of Thessaloniki last Wednesday 23/4.

I noticed a distant thunderstorm, but there was nothing else to be happy of...

Holy Friday was an interesting day and it was raining as always every Friday before Easter! Some minutes after midnight it started raining and I was informed that lightnings were seen North of the city. Suddenly, the electricity was cut and it was dark all over the neighbourhood. Some seconds later I heard the noise a Cloud-ground lightning does. However, this thunderstorm was not for us and it moved to West, to Veria. But, strangely I heard again some rumbles and I saw some lightnings closer this time. It didn't seem to be anything worth watching, so I fell asleep at ~2:00 and don't know where the (second?) thunderstorm moved.
When I woke up it was raining heavily with no electrical phenomena, indeed. But, when the clouds dissappeared in the afternoon, new Cumulus congestus clouds formed immediately!

Cumulonimbus North and towering Cumulus over the mountains.

The horizon got darker quickly and...

...rain curtains appeared over the mountains.

I did not see any lightning and the lightning detector on my mobile phone did not find anything, so it can not be called as a thunderstorm. Strange though, because the only thing that someone would have waited to see in there was lightnings! However, when the cloud and the rainshower passed a hidden distant Cumulonimbus revealed.

But that Cumulonimbus was unfortunately not for Thessaloniki...
And while these things were happening towards North and East some distant indifferent Cumulus were developing West of Thessaloniki.

A moment later the sky got cloudy and it looked more like winter than spring and a light wind made the atmosphere colder. However, some Cumulus continued to form over the sea (left in the photo).

But suddenly something was approaching from the NE. It looked like wall cloud, but it was not.

I started wondering if any thunderstorm was coming, but I did not see any thunder again. A friend of mine, who was with me, said that the previous Cb, that was hidden, was coming, but it sounded a bit strange, because that Cb was moving towards NE... However, that day no cloud was moving to a specific direction, so... perhaps he's right? I wasn't sure about what was happening...but it looked liked something was moving on! At least I was sure about this!

At the same time the clouds over the sea got red.

Some minutes later rain curtains were seen near the North edge of the city while the clouds were getting closer to the sea. Then a lightning appeared at last! So, we had a thunderstorm, which was also detected by the lightning detector. Actually there were two seperate thunderstorms. I noticed some distant rain curtains and some flashes at the North horizon.
You can watch the (newly created or previous-existed?) rain curtains before the lightnings appeared at the end of this time lapse I tried unsuccesfully to record...

And then at night it started raining again till the total precipitation of the day was around 18-20mm! Not bad.

Saturday was not so interesting, appart from some dark Cumulus which were responsible for drizzling in the afternoon.

Easter's weather was like winter. The temperature had fallen to 14-16oC and it was worse with light rainfalls combined with a humid wind. The sun appeared only some minutes before the sunset.

So, Monday was back to show how the weather should be in spring! Due to high buildings in front of my house I can't see anything, but I was lucky that day because I was going to my grandparents at Diavata, where I can see the whole city! While driving to Diavata I noticed a Cumulonimbus with an ambolt South of Hortiatis mountain, but it didn't seem to have any rain curtains, although it was hard to see, because of humid atmosphere. The other Cumulus I watched were N of Thessaloniki.

An ambolt was being formed. I think it happened earlier than normal.

That's how the cloud looked like, when I arrived at Diavata.

It was beautiful how the towering Cumulus met the ambolt in higher altitude.

The Cb S of Thessaloniki was still there.

I heard the first rumble when the time was around 15:30 and the thunderstorm was moving towards Thessaloniki.

Flashes were seen constantly followed by rumbles and the horizon disappeared by the rain. At the same time a new Cu congestus was developing and was following the thunderstorm from N.
It formed an ambolt quickly, too and rain curtains appeared immediately.

The thunderstorm was moving to South, but very slow indeed.

At N I saw some Vigra. Perhaps an ex-Cumulonimbus.

All this came to an end, when I had to leave at 17:00. The Cb was wonderful from the car and I saw a huge ambolt, that was created!

When I arrived in Kalamaria, everything was wet and I saw that the precipitation was 4-8mm depending on the location.

None of those thunderstorms was the first of the year. The first was in 15 April, midnight. The rainfall was severe with rain rate at ~98mm/h, but the lightnings were not many...
Next day rainfalls were seen only S of Thessaloniki. Here is a time lapse of that day, nothing interesting indeed...

PS. Lightning detector on mobile phone I said? Check it out here! ;)
http://www.astrogenic.com/spark.html
http://www.sv2bzq.gr/hystory_weather/spark.htm

Czechia! (photos)

2008-04-26T16:40:00.006+03:00

Now I'm writing again after a long period and I have to say that I was quite busy the previous days...
First of all, I was in Prague for 6 days with my school, where everything was very beautiful!
The first day (7/4) was really tiring due to thick fog in Prague. We had to land in Brno airport and wait in the plane for 3 hours till the fog would disappear! We finally arrived at noon and the weather in Prague was rainy, windy and cold!

Next morning I saw, that water on streets had been frost, so the tempetrature must have been below 0oC during night.
However, we were lucky as regards the weather the following days and during all our trips it was sunny and warm with temperature being around 15-19oC!
It was a bit cold only on Wednesday 3/4, when we went to Germany to Dresden, due to cloudy weather and wind.

A trip to Cesky Krumlov was organised next day and I was looking from the bus at the Cumulus clouds, which were trying to develope.

Cesky Krumlov was a really beautiful town and it's obvious why it's a UNESCO world heritage centre!

But suddenly, while leaving, I noticed that some Cumulus had appeared South of Cesky Krumlov and they were quite big and dark, too.

It started drizzling in some areas under those Cumulus.

On Friday 11/4 we had plenty of time to look around in Prague centre and I took lots of pictures.
Some of them:

The sky was dizzy and had been covered by Cirrus clouds. Nothing interesting till I suddenly heard some rumbles! I looked outside and it was raining heavily and few lightnings could be seen. It wasn't a severe thunderstorm, but trying to find out were the main part of the thunderstorm was, I noticed some distant thunderstorms instead! Although the rainfall soon ended, I did not expect, that I would experience the first thunderstorm in Czechia and not in Thessaloniki!
Lightning strikes of that day in Europe from Blitzortung.org

Next day, which was the last one in Czechia, we were ready for a trip to Karlovy Vary and Cumulus were covering the sky.
Some pictures of the town:

On the way to airport I saw some "suspicious" clouds, that made me wondering wether there was a "dead" thunderstorm in there or not...

Some minutes later the bus stopped and I was so lucky to capture this beautiful Czechian sunset!

And that was my last sunset in Czechia...
Now, I'm back in Greece studying for the school exams in May...
Although I don't have so much time, I'll try to write again as soon as possible.

Miracle! Over two days with rainy weather!

2008-04-06T22:15:00.005+03:00

Hi everyone!
After many many months, I watched again remarkable rainfalls in Thessaloniki with long duration!
I woke up Friday morning and it was difficult to go to school, because the streets had been transformed to rivers! The precipitation during Friday in East Thessaloniki (counted by the weather station in Pylea) was 29,6mm and next day 7,8mm were added. Although the amount of rain was big, no thunderstorm was near the city. The weather and the clouds that day were just like those in Norway combined with low temperature (8-10oC).
So the April's total precipitation till now in Thessaloniki is 70-109mm (depending on the location).
So, I hope that alike rainfalls will continue throughout this year, because-I have no idea why-remarkable rainfalls have been seldom the last two years...

But, it will take some days till next time it will rain again, because warm air mass and sunny weather will precede. The temperature will get as high as 30oC in many areas of Greece and the average temperature in Northern Greece will be around 25-27oC! So, from the heater, straight to the air conditions!

PS. From Monday 7/4 till Sunday 13/4 I will be in Prague with my school!

Mud rain, 989hPa and Cumulus! (photos)

2008-03-25T22:29:00.009+02:00

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 transfered 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 clouds had a distance.

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 Vigra 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...

Easter with snowstorms in Northern Europe!

2008-03-23T14:20:00.001+02:00

Katholic Easter has fallen early this year and the weather in Northern Europe is not like spring at all.
It was a white Easter today for Scandinavia, UK, Germany and many other countries in Europe. The snow amount in Southern Norway, specifically, was over 80cm and it is still snowing, contrary to Oslo, were the weather is better now. Many electricity cuts have also been reported in Norway after the harsh snowstorms.
The temperature is also very low all over Scandinavia and it will be down to -15-20oC in many areas in Northern Norway. The temperature in Oslo yesterday morning was -11,7oC the lowest since 19 December.
The snowfalls will continue in Northern Europe for some days this week, but the weather will get warmer and sunnier by the end of the month.

You can see some photos here;
http://www.agderposten.no/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=
AP&Dato=20080321&Kategori=FOTOALBUM&Lopenr=380912092&Ref=PH
http://www.agderposten.no/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=
AP&Dato=20080322&Kategori=FOTOALBUM&Lopenr=18597727&Ref=PH

Or watch the snowstorm in these webcams;
http://www.agderposten.no/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=webcam
http://www.webcamsinnorway.com/webcams.php?viewcam=689

21 cloud time lapse videos of 2007

2008-03-12T16:37:00.002+02:00

2007, Thessaloniki-Macedonia,Greece. 21 time lapse videos of various clouds taken during the whole year of 2007. Watch clouds passing by, Cumulus growing up to Cumulonimbus, thunderstorms and many other beautiful clouds..."made in Greece!"

Cumulus time lapse video

2008-03-10T23:19:00.005+02:00

Some Cumulus clouds appeared over mountains today, Monday, but it wasn't raining anywhere...

However, the weather will change tomorrow and I hope thunderstorms will come...

Welcome Spring, welcome thunderstorms! (photos)

2008-03-10T00:05:00.007+02:00

At last, sun is shining and makes weather unstable!
Today, was the first day of the year with thunderstorms around Thessaloniki and Cumulonimbus clouds were appearing constantly!
The first Cumulus appeared in the morning around ~10:00 over the mountains!

Later in the day, all horizons were totally full of Cumulonimbus! One of them, a Cb towards mt Olympus had already formed an ambolt. I went to Neous Epivates, SouthWest of Thessaloniki, to watch a carnaval parade, so the photos are taken from there.

The Cumulus clouds over mt Hortiatis were growing and an ambolt was being formed on the top of them.

However, no thunderstorm appeared in Thessaloniki.

A thunderstorm was being formed over the mountains South of the city.

The Cumulonimbus towards Olympus was disolving, but...

...many Tower Cumulus were following!

The clouds South of Thessaloniki were getting bigger and darker. I could also see, that it was raining in the mountains.

At the same time, some small Cumulus congestus near N. Epivates...

...grew up all together into a thunderstorm and I soon heard the first rumbles of the year (for me)!

However, the thunderstorm's "life" didn't last so long and it was raining from Perea to the airport during the cloud's disolvation.

However, new Cumulus didn't stop to appear...

...and after Cumulus, come Cumulonimbus!

Even few hours before sunset, the Cbs were getting bigger and bigger and bigger...

The Cb North of Thessaloniki was "dieing", but some Cumulus next to it were getting higher.

I saw some lightnings under the Cb, too, but the thunderstorm seemed to weaken, as the sun was disappearing...

You can watch a time lapse video of this Cumulonimbus cloud here;

Later at night, it started raining for a while, because of a weak Cb coming from West...

It was raining also on Friday for first time after 30 days (!) and the total precipitation was 8-9mm in 3 hours.

Thunderstorms appeared early this year! Well, there were almost no snowfalls in Northern Greece for second year (!), so... let's wish thunderstorms welcome, because they are always here with us! =P

PS (Which is the correct? Cumulus clouds were growing? Were building up? Were towering? Were developing? or...Were billowing??? Please help me...)

The first Cumulonimbus of the year! (photos)

2008-03-08T15:17:00.005+02:00

Wednesday 5 March 2008, I saw the first Cumulonimbus cloud NNE of Thessaloniki.

It seems, that I have to forget snow for this year... This is the second year with no remarkable snowfalls in Northern Greece...
So, let us hope that this summer will be full of thunderstorms, which always come!

Spring sets in and Cumulus appear (photos)

2008-02-29T22:11:00.007+02:00

The weather is getting warmer and it seems, that high temperatures will continue next week, too. The temperatures might be high as +25oC in some areas!
The warm atmosphere has made Cumulus able to grow up to Cumulus congestus. You'll see some pictures of Cumulus clouds I took on Thursday. We went a school trip to the ski centre Elatochori, where the snow was melting, however it was enough for skiing.
We were transfered by cable cars up to 1500-1700m, where the temperature was around +5-6oC... I took there my first pictures of Cumulus clouds being developed over mountains.

Cumulus congestus were growing during the afternoon.

Light and clouds were playing together =P!

While leaving, I took those picture from the bus. The sun-rays were getting even more spectacular!

Optical phenomena (photos)

2008-02-18T01:05:00.008+02:00

Beautiful clouds decorated the sky last week over Thessaloniki, which were the reason of the impressive optical phenomena that appeared not only during daylight, but also at night!
I think it must be those clouds, called nacreous, which appear in winter and may form even higher than Cirrus and their altitude is around 15-25km (stratosphere). However, I have some doubts, if they really were nacreous clouds, because they mainly appear in higher latitudes, such as Scandinavia...
Maybe you can understand, whether it's nacreous or not, by looking at the following photos.

Beautiful colors appeared on the clouds, which were close to the sun.

Their appearance were combined with the formation of some lenticularis clouds. Unfortunately, those nacreous clouds disappeared before sunset. That was a pity, because they can make a sunset really majestic. Only some lenticularis were still forming, as night was setting in...

The same night a corona was surrounding the moon.

That day (18/2) the min temperature was -4oC and the max +4oC. At the height of 500hPa the temperature was around -40oC and maybe this is the reason, that such clouds appeared.

Three days later, the weather was more like spring, than winter. It was warm and some Cirrus appeared at night. Luckily, I suddenly noticed a huge halo around the moon (full moon). It was really exciting, first time I see this phenomenon at night, so I tried to capture it.

The halo is not clearly seen, but it isn't that difficult to see it, after editing the photo.

Next day a corona surrounding the moon appeared again!

Such optical phenomena are always beautiful and if you are interested, you can find some info and beautiful photos I found here!
Nacreous clouds
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/highsky/nacr1.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_stratospheric_cloud
http://www.cloudappreciationsociety.org/gallery/index.php?x=browse&category=23&pagenum=1
Corona
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_(meteorology)
http://www.cloudappreciationsociety.org/gallery/index.php?x=browse&category=33&pagenum=1
Halo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/22%C2%B0_halo
http://www.cloudappreciationsociety.org/gallery/index.php?x=browse&category=32&pagenum=1

Updated 1/3/08: After searching for some more info in the Internet, I found out that those clouds on the photos are not nacreous.

"The worst storm of the decade", said journalists... (photos)

2008-02-17T22:24:00.010+02:00

I'm not sure, if that's so true, but I don't remember what happened 10 years ago either... However, it was for sure a severe storm, although most of journalists always exaggerate, when it has to do with weather... They were advising all day people not to leave their homes, because it's very dangerous! Snowing in South Greece is not a rare phenomenon, but it's rediculous to keep people at home just of 25-50cm snow, especially when children love snow...
Yes, the amount of snow was 20-50cm and the snowfalls continue. So, many areas will possible experience up to 100cm of snow till tomorrow! Even in the centre of Athens some cms of snow covered the streets and up to 15-25cms of snow covered areas around the city! The schools tomorrow will be closed and many villages are already excluded without electricity!
According to a meteorologist 3 things made this severe storm. Firstly, a front coming from North, then a a cold air mass and finally the winds. Maybe the front was the reason for some thunders, that were heard during the snowfalls yesterday night in Athens! Thunders and snowfall is a seldom combination! A record was also set today. The temperature was -13oC at a height of 850hPa over Athens and -40oC at 500hPa!
Now, how was the weather in North Greece? Sunny!! Few clouds around and a severe North wind made the real feel of temperature much colder!! The min today was -2,5oC and the max +3oC and not 0oC as they said on TV. However, the temperature is below 0oC again and will be lower tomorrow.
The weather will get warmer quickly again by Wednesday!

You can watch some videos I found on the Internet showing the snowfalls in Athens!

American tourists surprised with snow in Athens!

Snow also in Crete!!!

And some photos taken by members of the Greek weather list "HellasWeather".
Athens

Maria Kavadia

Vangelis Tsakirakis

Stratis Vougioukas

Dimitris Kabolis

PetrosV

And Theva

Achilleas Katsaros

PS. I heard a meteorologist on TV today, that all these severe snowfalls, happened due to a phenomenon called "Lake-effect snow", something that happens commonly in North America.
More info about the lake-effect snow;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_effect_snow

Extreme cold on the way! (photos)

2008-02-15T14:46:00.007+02:00

It's already snowing in many areas in South and East Greece and the snow amount in some areas is increasing. However, the precipitation will be almost non-existent again in North Greece, because of the reason I mention last time...
Suddenly, a strong wind appeared yesterday evening and made the temperature fall. Despite the 7oC, my hands were red and hurt, cause the real feel was much colder (North wind) and some Cirrus and Altocumulus clouds appeared.
The wind now has calmed down and the temperature is still above 0oC in Thessaloniki, contrary to many other locations, where it's much colder and it's snowing. The sky is covered with clouds, although the sun is occasionally seen. The darkest clouds are some kilometres South of here, towards Halkidiki, where it has been snowing since early morning. Just some kilometres South of here! Hopefully, some snow will be experienced also in Thessaloniki later today, but not anything exciting...
The min today was +2oC and the max +5oC some hours ago. The temperature has started falling again and it will continue falling till tomorrow, when it will be really cold as it never has been for many years. The temperature up to 850hPa will be -12oC for Thessaloniki and -4oC for Athens!

Some locations, where it's snowing right now
Athens, Ioannina, Scopelos, Tripoli, Karditsa, Agrinio, Halkida, Halkidiki, etc...
You can watch live snowfall in Athens here;
http://nifada.com/webcam/panorama_large.htm

PS. I captured a nacreous cloud yesterday, those beautiful clouds that always get so many colours, when they are near the sun. However, this one was a little far away from the sun. Many lenticularis appeared that day, too.

Last week and next week

2008-02-03T17:15:00.000+02:00

After so many days of rainless and dry weather, some rain and snow appeared in Greece, but not in North.
The only noteworthy, that happened in Northern Greece during last week was-for second time this winter-the severe winds coming from north, that were as strong as 110km/h (9-11Beaufort) and caused many accidents and made the harbours close. When such strong North winds appear in Northern Greece, no precipitation will be seen.
Contrary to the rest of South and Central Greece, where these cold winds firstly pass over the warm Aegean Sea, then become humid because of the temperature difference and finally make clouds and heavy rainfalls over these areas.
The same thing happend Tuesday night and Wednesday, when the weather in Northern Greece was sunny and windy, whereas it was snowing in Athens and in many other areas in South Greece with low altitude.
However, this didn't last more than 2-3 days and the weather is boring again all over Greece. Sunny, humid, dizzy, some few Ac clouds, warm durind daylight and cold during night...
The weather is said to change next weekend, so let us hope...

Weather of no interest

2008-01-25T18:00:00.000+02:00

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...

New year starts with snowstorms in Norway (photos)

2008-01-07T14:56:00.000+02:00

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The snowfalls' intensity was constant and some severe snow showers continued to appear whole night. The snowflakes were getting larger, too.

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.

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.

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

...and during the afternoon snowstorms appeared again and it was really harsh to walk against the wind.

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.

You can watch a video of snowflakes-watching at street lights.

Cold weather and rime just before Christmas in Norway (photos)

2007-12-27T15:36:00.000+02:00

After many years of not going to Norway during winter, my wish to return came true! I will stay in Arendal, Aust Agder till 4 January 2008 and I hope I am going to see some snow...although I don't think so... It has already snowed in Thessaloniki, whereas in South Norway they are still waiting!

I arrived on Friday night in Kristiansand, Vest Agder, where the temperature was really low. But it had already been cold in South Norway during last week with temperatures being around -11oC...-4oC during the day! So, while driving to Arendal (~65km East of Kristiansand) the max temperature I met was -3oC and the min -11,5oC*, while some fog-clouds were appearing in the sky!
But low temperature was not the only interesting during last week, when I was not in Norway. The weather was also dizzy and dense fog had been covering many areas in South Norway for many hours everyday. So, thick rime was formed and covered all surfaces, just as everything looks like after a snowfall! My grandmother described to me, the way the sun was shining through the fog one day, something that made the tiny ice crystals glow and she said that it was like watching small diamonds falling down from the sky! I’m almost sure that an optical phenomenon like parhelia must have been seen. Something else that was formed because of the really low temperatures was thick ice on the sea surface!
When I finally arrived in Arendal, the temperature was as low as -7,5oC and the sky was clear. Here are some photos I took showing the rime, just after my arrival!
Everything was frost.

The little neighborhood, where I stay every time I come to Norway

A frost tree

In the garden

The ground, covered of rime

A new, white day has just started. Everything looks like it had been snowing!

The island Tromøy to the right and the bridge, Tromøybrua can also be seen

In Arendal centre the sea is frost and some birds just walk on the ice

Rime seen on the grass

White houses and trees

The small island, Hisøy...

...and Tromøy

Some icicles back of some trees

Beautiful rime formations

The sea covered by ice with Tromøy in the background

Really fascinating forest on Tromøy

Another close-up rime formation

Everything is white

But the things got worse during Saturday. When it was getting darker, instead of getting colder the temperature continued to rise and finally reached +0,3 at midnight with some fog covering the area! So...all these fascinating landscapes are gone now and the ice has melt...
The temperature finally reached +2,7oC Sunday 05:55 and when I woke up at ~11:00 the sun had just risen up and I noticed that the temperature had fallen to ~1oC...I supposed, that the temperature felt because the sky was cloudless now... However, even during afternoon, when the sun was shining the temperature was still falling above 0oC, something that made everything wet, frost and the streets quite dangerous. The temperature stopped at -3,4oC at 22.50 and frost-smokes (as they say in Norway) appeared over many areas, because of the cold surfaces.
PHOTO

Christmas day for Norway is 24/12 and Monday's min was -3,1oC at 00:30, but the temperature soon started to rise again till the max was marked at 17:40 with 5oC. Christmas was windy with some drizzles. Nothing interesting...

So, Tuesday 25/12 had also some strange temperature changes. At midnight the temperature was +3,3oC, but a temperature drop was followed till 05:55 with -1oC. So, began a temperature-rise...again and I noticed, that it started raining at 09:35 with the temperature at +0,2oC!
It was snowing last Saturday in Thessaloniki with +3oC and it's raining in Norway with just +0,2oC!?*
And finally, the max of the day was +5,2oC at 21:30…

Wednesday started with cloudy weather and +4,1oC at midnight. So, the min followed at 04:50, which was +0,4oC, but the temperature after that didn’t rise that much, maybe because of the clear sky and the temperature was around +1oC the whole afternoon. But the temperature began to irritate me again by rising to +4,7oC at 23:10, while the sky was getting mostly cloudy and this was also the max of the day…

And I thought the max temperature is during daylight…
**Well, I can refer some differences I noticed between the weather in Norway and Greece.
Although the temperature in Norway were really low and even -11oC, I can't say, that I was freezing. I felt those -11oC in Norway like -1oC in Greece! When it's cold in Greece, it's awful cold, even when the temperature is not under 0oC! I feel my hands, my ears hurt and my nose really cold, which always gets red and when it's windy it's much worse! The wind is just getting through your clothes, something that didn't happen in Norway. I could easily keep myself warm only by wearing a coat!

Something else I noticed in Norway is the combination between the temperature and the snowfalls. Last Saturday Thessaloniki, Greece was experiencing severe snowfalls with temperatures during night and day above 0oC! The min was +0,7oC and the max +3,4oC! The snow didn't cover the ground, but it was snowing! It started raining only in South Thessaloniki, when the temperature was as high as +4oC and the humidity as high as 97%, whereas it was snowing at the same time in north Thessaloniki with +2oC! It has snowed in Greece many times, while the temperature was above 0oC!
However, I have noticed that it hardly snows in Norway even if the temperature is 0oC or even just below 0oC... For example, on Tuesday morning the temperature was +0,2oC and I was surprised to see, that it was raining! I remember when I was younger, the same thing happening....
I can't explain why this is happening, but I suppose it has to do with the temperature in higher altitudes.... But logically, the temperature should be lower in Norway and not in Greece, right?

Well, I hope I didn't was tiring for you to read all this.

I will write again, if............I see any snow, or anything else interesting....

I wish you happy holidays and a happy new year!

Snowy Greek landscapes (photos)

2007-12-20T01:08:00.000+02:00

And after the snowfalls on Saturday afternoon, I decided in the evening to stay at my grandparents' house for the weekend. The live in Diavata, Nea Ionia, a Northern part of Thessaloniki. The sky was clear and only some clouds appeared during night of Sunday. And suddenly, I opened my eyes at 7:30 and was so lucky to notice, that a beautiful sunrise was going to follow, as the temperature was as low as -2oC!

After all those snowfalls, I wanted so much to go to "my village" (as we say here in Greece), Petroto. Petroto is a small village North of Thessaloniki, in the countryside, where the temperature is lower and I thought, that the snow wouldn't have melt. And I was right. The snow was still covering trees and mountains, but it started melting there, too, as the temperature was higher than 0oC...

I suppose, that the snow amount had been around 6-7cm, but some of it had already melted. The clouds started covering the sky, but because of the Cirrostratus-clouds the sun could be seen through them.

And so, at ~02.30 Monday, it startes snowing again back in Diavata! The temperature was around 1oC, so cars and parks were being covered by the snow.

However, it wasn't snowing in all areas of Thessaloniki. For example, in Kalamaria it was raining mixed with some wet snowflakes with 3oC and 97% humidity! It continued to snow in the morning, but the temperature was rising and it finally stopped at noon...

Severe snowfalls after 2 years in Northern Greece! (photos)

2007-12-15T14:45:00.000+02:00

At last! After 2 years of dry and boring weather, I'm watching snowflakes again! I had forgotten how it was to see snowflakes flying around! The weather is back to normal again.

The first snowflakes appeared Friday ~22.30 in the city of Thessaloniki with 3oC!

But as the temperatute was falling and the snowfall was getting more severe during the night, snow started covering trees, parks, but unfortunately not the streets...

Early today the temperature was around 0,5oC, but soon started to rise, so the snow began to melt...
This photo is taken in the center of Thessaloniki early today, but not by me.

However, snowfalls were getting again even more severe at noon, but the streets just became wet...

That does not make me sad at all, because the winter has just started and a Christmas-atmosphere was made! I am even more happy, especially when I see, that it hasn't snowed at all in areas of Northern Europe, such as South Norway!
The snow amount was only 1cm in the center in Thessaloniki, but in other towns in Northern Greece the snow was much more... For example, in Veria 10cm, in Kilkis 15-20cm, in Katerini 15cm, in Xanthi 10cm...

You can watch a video of the snowfalls here:

So yes, that's a normal start for winter, cause last winter was the worse! After the October (2006) floods, November started dry without rain and whole winter continued with droughts without snowflakes at all and only few days with rain... In contrast with Northern Europe and especially Southern Norway, where the amount of snow in February 2007 was over 4 meters!!! Neither winter, nor spring was rainy and so came summer, with even worse weather! Dry weather and 3 heatwaves with temperatures over 40oC, that lasted for days additionally, whereas Northern Europe was experiencing rainfalls and floods!!! The worst summer for years, but fortunately after the rainy days in October and November the weather came back to normal and there are hopes and many estimates, that the coming winter will be really cold and full of snowfalls and why not, a second 1988 or 2001 for Thessaloniki?

Northern Greece, ready for severe snowfalls!!!

2007-12-13T15:00:00.000+02:00

At last severe snowfalls will appear in Northern Greece after 2 years of drought!!!
Specifically, on Friday morning snow will start falling in Eastern Greece and later in the day snowfalls will cover Northern and Central Greece, also areas near the coastline... However, even one day before the arrival of the cold-wave, nothing is sure about how the weather will go on... Will the temperature in areas, which are next to the sea, be low enough? Will the precipitation be enough, so that the snow will cover the ground? How long will the snowfalls last? Will rainfalls melt the snow?
Unfortunately, nothing is sure yet, and I hope in severe snowfalls in North Greece and Thessaloniki, because we really deserve it after 2 years of boring weather and drought... I personally, haven't seen a snowflake for these 2 years at all.
As you can understand I will continue with the WebcamsInNorway, when the whole thing is over...
You can read an interesting view about the severe snowfalls by Alan Reppert from AccuWeather here:
http://www.accuweather.com/news-blogs.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&blog=reppert&date=2007-12-11_23:35&month=12">

Snow In Many Spots
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Snow over most of Southeastern Europe, and that might even include seeing some snow in cities like Bucharest, Belgrade, Budapest and Sofia. But some of the more impressive locations that could see snow include near Istanbul, and into much of Greece. All I can say is this is quite an impressive cold wave, and the heart of this cold is coming in from Russia, the first major push of the year. But, how much snow can we see?

It really looks like most of the uncommon locations to see snow will be around only seeing some light snowfall, maybe a cm, but most of those locations will see just some light flurries mixing in. The center of the storm will be pushing well into parts of Southeastern Europe, meaning that this cold air will be quite an impressive blast. This moves in from near Scandinavia and just goes south through the day Wednesday and gets into central parts of Southeastern Europe near northern Greece early on Friday. But this cold shot will only be temporary as the true heart of the cold gets pushed off to the east for late Saturday and into Sunday. It truly is quite impressive -- this cold shot -- as it could help to bring temperatures well below normal for the month from just the next few days alone. But how much snow will we see?

Yes, it's very difficult to say this area will see this much and this will see this much, so it's best to check AccuWeather.com for that info for each and every one of your locations. But generally speaking, through early Sunday, there might be around 10 cms in some of the higher elevations of the eastern Alps and to the south over some mountains above roughly 700-1,000 meters. I do think there could be an area that sees some heavy snowfall, especially near the track of the upper-level low. There may be some locations that see around 2cms in some of the highest elevations, so enjoy this snow! Farther to the south and also at lower elevations, there will be snow to elevations of even around 100 meters or less, so watch for this even near the coastline. There could be some snow mixing in with these showers just near the coastline, and this might be one of the only chances we see of having snow for the year in these spots. But do enjoy the snow, it will surely be good and very nice to see this cold to Christmas. Meanwhile, these mild temperatures are over Western Europe with a strong ridge of high pressure over the area.

Webcams in Norway (Part 1)

2007-12-07T12:39:00.001+02:00

The following link is a really interesting site, that includes a lot of webcameras from Norway! You can watch in real time a list of webcams, which are placed in towns, mountains, harbours, ski slopes and in other many areas!

http://www.webcamsinnorway.com/webcams.php

Let's see some of the webcams by selecting regions on the top of the site.
First region is Akershus in SE Norway. Not many cameras to choose, but these are quite interesting.

Drøbaksundet

and
Vøyenenga; Kirkerudbakken ski slope with snow

Next region in alphabetical order is Aust Agder. Aust Agder is in South Norway. Sunny weather there as you can see...
A nice town, where I travel every year (I'm 50/50 Norwegian/Greek), is Arendal!
This webcam shows the "Kulturhuset" in the centre of Arendal.
Kulturhuset

Some other nice webcams from the Agderposten.no (local newspaper).
Centre of Arendal

This webcam shows the small island Tromøy,

the even smaller island Hisøy

and the smallest of all, Merdø

The lighthouse "Lille Torungen" is also depicted in this webcam.

http://www.agderposten.no/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=webcam

A town near Arendal is Grimstad.

Grimstad - Groosefjorden

Many webcams are also located on Hovden mountain, but they cannot be shown throug the site WebcamsInNorway.

Next region is Buskerud in SE Norway. Cloudy weather there now.
Bragernes

Drammen - harbour

Geilo mountain - ski slope

Kongsberg - Nybrua. Floods were caused by severe rainfalls around that river in July.

Finmark, the northest region of Norway! It's been snowing for weeks there, but the last 2 days the weather got warmer and snow has started to melt...But snowfalls are forecasted again for the next days, so it's worth to wathch these webcams after Monday.
Kirkenes (live! http://193.69.140.40/view/index.shtml )

Vadsø

Hedmark, SE Norway. Cloudy and snow covering the mountains.
Hamar - airport

Hamar - Vangsåsen

Hordaland, West Norway. Nice weather in most areas, and partly cloudy.
Bergen

Odda

Finse; railway station

Møre og Romsdal, West Norway. Rainy weather.
Kristiansund

Skei - ski slope

Low temperature (photos)

2007-11-28T17:21:00.000+02:00

The temperature has decreased very much since Monday night and the cold air mass has been combined, as always with severe wind gusts.
While the sky was clear and the wind was calm on Monday, suddenly at 22:00 a big noise was caused by the North wind, that appeared and the temperature decreased immediately. The temperature-fall in some areas was around 10oC in 90 minutes!
Clouds soon appeared, but no precipitation has been reported. The clouds have remained till today, Wednesday and so have the strong wind gusts, too, which still overtake ~50-65km/h.
I'm personally glad about this weather, although it's really cold (6,7oC now and just 18:20!), because before this change, it was really dizzy and foggy something I dislike...
Some photos of these days.

25/11

27/11 midnight, during the temperature-fall

27/11, windy day

Today, 28/11

Wavy forms on the cloud base. Really cold.

Some kilometres north of Thessaloniki the sky was clear and the weather was sunny.

Photos of snow from Hortiatis mountain

2007-11-20T14:22:00.000+02:00

It began to snow at 14.30 in the afternoon from 800m and higher and the snow was spread on the ground from 1000m and higher. The snowfall wasn't severe, but it's worth to report.
Here are the proofs.

Summer became winter

2007-11-19T14:25:00.000+02:00

And after all those thunderstorms and Cumulonimbus, such as in summer, today the weather is totally different.
After yesterday's warm and sunny weather (max 15oC) the temperature right now is 6,9oC and it's raining! But the rain seems to be frozen and it looks like snow! In some areas the rain has turned into sleet and it's snowing above 700m on Hortiatis mountain next to Thessaloniki!!
However, tomorrow the weather will be sunny and it will be long till the next rainfalls...
Really strange weather we had this year...

Summer clouds and thunderstorms in November! (photos)

2007-11-18T21:44:00.000+02:00

And this is the video, showing lightnings from the thunderstorms yesterday.
The first lightnings are from the huge multicell towards East Macedonia and Thraki (Kavala, Serres, Rodopi etc), that also caused floods and many damages. And the rest of the video shows the thunderstorm, that was developed ~2:30 over Thermaikos with rainfalls and hail.

The beggining of the following day was interesting, too. Summer clouds and Cumulonimbus were surrounding Thessaloniki and the most of them were towards East.
As I was having a walk to wach the beautiful Cbs, I suddenly noticed the optical phenomenon called parhelia. The clouds left of the sun had some rainbow colours.

Then, I saw some Cumulus clouds hidding behind the mountains North of Thessaloniki...

...and thunderstorms towards NW far away.

Later, a huge and fascinating Cumulonimbus incus was getting closer from SE!

But unfortunately, it was dissolved into those Altocumulus clouds some hours later.

Bad weather all over Greece (photos)

2007-11-18T13:02:00.002+02:00

As I have already written it's not usual to see lightnings and thunders during the months from November til March in North Greece.
However, yesterday thunderstorms and rainfalls were covering almost whole Greece.
The weather in Athens was really interesting yesterday. In the beggining of the day a large funnel cloud was whirling and many damages would have been caused if it had touched down! Photos like these are seen mainly in USA and it looks like a tornado!

The photos are taken by Kostas Vitsios

Later in the day, another thunderstorm was getting closer Athens with this fascinating wall cloud!

Photo taken by Maria Kavadia

So, two thunderstorms struck Athens with severe rainfalls and hail!
Similar phenomena were affecting other areas in Greece.

Also in North Greece!
More thunderstorms could be seen yesterday night around Thessaloniki. It started rumbling around 21:30 and I noticed many lightnings from NE to S! I was informed, that a huge multicell was covering an area from Halkidiki to Rumania! Although the thunderstorm wasn't getting closer, it was thundering for over ~5 hours!
But Thermaikos gulf made a thunderstorm by himself and at 2.30 the thunderstorm was giving severe rainfalls and loud rumbles! Everything ended after 30 minutes and the thunderstorm was turning to North.

Videos will be posted later

Thunderstorm near Thessaloniki right now!

2007-11-16T21:13:00.001+02:00

The thunderstorms, that were covering the Ionian sea, managed to pass the mountain range of Pindos and now they are South of Thessaloniki.

Lightnings are seen and they few rumbles can be heard from thunders near Thessaloniki. It's been raining since 19.35, but although the thunderstorm seem to have an East direction the rain continues. Thunderstorms are also forecasted till later at night...

It should be noticed, that thunderstorms are seldom seen in North Greece during November and winter...

The first snow flakes in Thessaloniki & severe wind gusts! (photos)

2007-11-10T15:58:00.000+02:00

The cold air over Europe finally came towards Greece this morning. The North wind became stronger and the min temperature was 6oC at 10:05. Snowflakes managed to appear before the strenghtening of the North wind, that always clears up the sky, here in North Greece and some snowfalls affected most of the mountains in North and Central Greece. You can watch some snowflakes on the video below...

(Unfortunately, the quality is too bad...)

It didn't last for a long time and the clouds quickly disappeared, because of the really severe wind gusts, that continue untill now!

The airport reported max wind gust 111km/h* (!) and the average wind speed ~60-85km/h*! Many trees have fallen down, damages are also caused and Thermaikos looks like Atlantic Ocean!!

The max temperature was 10oC at 13:00, but it began to decrease immediately and it's 7oC outside now!

Some photos

###

*7Beaufort=~15m/s=~55km/h

8B=~19m/s=~68km/h

9B=~22m/s=~80km/h

10B=~26m/s=~88km/h

11B=~29m/s=~110km/h

Cloudy and dizzy weather (photos)

2007-10-28T22:40:00.000+02:00

At last rainfalls are covering whole Greece these days, including South Greece, too. The thunderstorms were really severe in some areas and the rainfalls were much more in South Greece last week, than in North Greece, where the perticipation was less again than expected... The rainfalls prevailed mainly on Saturday (20/10) and Sunday night till Monday (21-22/10). Monday morning was interesting in Thessaloniki, after a warm front causing rainfalls and winter situations with Stratus and Stratocumulus. However, later in the morning a cold front was approaching and this was the reason, that Cumulonimbus clouds had developed. For example, a thunderstorm was East of Thessaloniki and rumbles could be heard from these black clouds.

Time lapse of the edge of the Cumulonimbus cloud.

While this Cumulonimbus was leaving, suddenly some Cumulus appeared from the sea later in the day. These Cumulus clouds were developing very quickly and they looked like this in some minutes!

And these clouds finally became a Cumulonimbus cloud while passing East of Thessaloniki.

You can watch the developments in this time lapse video.

Clouds covered the sky in the afternoon and the rest of the day was cloudy and cold...No thunderstorms were near Thessaloniki any longer...

Distant Cumulus congestus and thunderstorms were the main characteristics of the weather the following days.

One of these days I captured this.

It looks like that the Cumulus clouds (left in the picture) have made a shield "against" the Altocumulus clouds (right in the picture)! Why have the Altocumulus clouds this weird form around the Cumulus? Strange, I thought...

Unfortunately, the weather since Friday 26/10 is really dizzy with foggy mornings and the sky is covered with Stratus and Stratocumulus...Thessaloniki looks like London these days...

Another strange phenomenon I captured was these waves on a cloud-base...(31/10)

I wonder, if this phenomenon, is what we call "Gravity wave"...

UNBELIEVABLE!!! ESTOFEX Threat level 3 over Greece!!!

2007-10-21T17:30:00.000+03:00

Really dangerous weather conditions are expected from tonigth till Tuesday! There is great risk of floods, wind gusts and severe thunderstorms!

By reading the new forecast update of Estofex, the risk of severe weather is understood! The threat level is upgraded to 3!!!

The forecast says:
"Forecast Update
Valid: Sun 21 Oct 2007 12:00 to Mon 22 Oct 2007 06:00 UTC
Issued: Sun 21 Oct 2007 12:19
Forecaster: TUSCHY

SYNOPSIS

Please refer to the outlook issued at Sat 20 Oct 2007 19:52!

DISCUSSION

...S / E Greece, the Aegean Sea and extreme western Turkey...

Latest IR / WV images show a rapid increase in thunderstorm coverage SW of Greece and those storms already exhibit a strongly sheared appearance. It's not necessary to mention that we are in an area with bad data coverage but Tunis 00Z already had 50kt at 500hPa and the 06Z sat.derived wind shear analysis of METOSAT 9 had about 40m/s shear ( 150-300mb layer mean minus 700-925mb layer mean ) with increasing tendency. In addition, the 150-300hPa maps of UW-CIMMS hint on an area of strong upper-level divergence, which developed over northern Tunisia and now affects the area SW of Greece.
It looks like this is the result of a weak short-wave, coming out of the base of the main upper-level trough. Attendant forcing and increasing support of upper-level divergence should help to increase thunderstorm activity during the next hours or so. Those thunderstorms will be the first round of storms, affecting Greece during the next few hours.
The severe weather threat should not yet be too high, as wind field stays quite weak. Still, an isolated tornado can't be excluded comparing the 00Z sounding report of Athinai with the current conditions. A few strong to severe wind gust reports and mostly sub-severe hail can be expected, too.

The main concern /severe weather wise/ should evolve over the level-3 area , starting at 18-20Z south / southwest of Greece and spreading rapidly towards the north/northeast.
The focus for widespread thunderstorm re-development will be a constantly eastward shifting cold front, affecting S-Greece from the west.
Latest synop reports(12Z) locate the front just west of Malta.
In addition we have to deal with the well developed and increasing negatively tilted trough axis and attendant compact PVA field, spreading rapidly northeastwards.
At lower levels a well developed low pressure channel is forecast to cross Greece during the late evening and night hours from the southwest while slowing down somewhat.
Strong moisture advection in the prefrontal airmass, signals of persistent and deep convergence in a nearly uncapped environment and increasing 0-3km CAPE signals raise the confidence of surface-based storms along and ahead of this frontal boundary.

The main reason for upgrading was the persistence of the past few GFS model runs indicating an enhanced risk of widespread severe weather over SE-Greece and the Aegean Sea although there are still some run-to-run variations and hence more or less impressive severe weather parameters, but even in the weaker cases a risk for widespread severe weather would exist.
Another uncertainty will be the quality of the airmass behind the currently ongoing thunderstorms , but we think that impressive forcing and a rapidly cooling atmosphere should easily compensate the potential negative impacts ( e.g. missing insolation ).

As mid-level trough / surface trough and cold front converge Greece during the evening and night hours, wind field in all levels increases significantly ( winds at 850hPa between 25 and 30m/s, at 700hPa about 35m/s ) and shear is quite intense over S-Greece ( SRH1 about 200 J/kg and SRH3 between 400 and 600 J/kg ). Current thinking is that an already organized line of storms enters the level-3 area from the SW between 18 and 20Z, racing N/NE-wards. Dependant on the internal organisation of this line widespread severe-damaging wind gusts can be expected with numerous gusts exceeding 33m/s. As shear vector and expected orientation of the MCS still include a large angle a few discrete thunderstorms can't be excluded with an attendant enhanced tornado / large hail risk...
The severe weather threat then continues to expand northeastwards and should pass over to a widespread severe wind gust risk, as front is located more and more parallel to the intense background flow.

During the early morning hours, severe weather risk should also increase over western Turkey, but main risk will evolve after 06Z and hence is not reflected in this outlook.

Regarding the flash flood threat which is not reflected in our level criterion.
It looks like cold front slows down and stalls somewhere southeast of Greece, maybe affecting western Crete during the night hours. Strong convergence and deep parcel layer depth, coupled with a very moist LL inflow should enhance the excessive rainfall risk, moving slowly eastwards and reaching extreme western Turkey during the end of the forecast period.

...Western Crete..

Better instability and intense shear also favor an enhanced tornado / severe wind gust and large hail risk, especially if the storms stay more isolated due to weaker forcing. The strongest activity can be expected during the latter part of the forecast period as cold front is forecast to slowly approach from the west.

Please refer to the paragraph above regarding the excessive rainfall risk.

...Eastern Romania and extreme northern Bulgaria...

We decided to lower the probabilities due to the marginal risk for severe weather."

*******

And the previous forecast earlier this day, was:

"Storm Forecast
Valid: Sun 21 Oct 2007 06:00 to Mon 22 Oct 2007 06:00 UTC
Issued: Sat 20 Oct 2007 19:52
Forecaster: TUSCHY

SYNOPSIS

Investigating the current European weather maps reveals a very dynamic pattern resulting in a completely disturbed streamline pattern over Europe. To get an understanding about the overall situation we have to describe the streamline pattern upstream a little bit.
During the past few days, very warm air east of North America streamed northwards with temperatures at 500hPa approaching -5°C!
This air now gets incorporated into a developing trough SW of Greenland, spreading rapidly towards the east. As a consequence, pressure begins to rise over the northern Atlantic Ocean, causing a weakening trend of a positively tilted upper-level trough west of Ireland. This in turn temporarily weakens the WAA, supporting a strong ridge over NW Europe, which resulted in the excessively high temperatures well to the north during the past 2 days.
Nevertheless...downstream of this NW-European high pressure area, a pool of very cold mid-level air spreads straight to the south and is accompanied by intense wind fields due to strong geopotential height gradients over southern Europe.

Warm and stable conditions continue over parts of eastern Europe.

DISCUSSION

... Confidence is growing that a high-end severe weather event will be imminent for parts of SE Europe. Please be up-to-date to the latest statements of your national weather services ! ...

... Greece, Crete, western Turkey and the Aegean Sea...

Yesterday, both the 12Z sounding reports and WV loops showed an intense 120kt upper-level jet over southern Germany, translating rapidly towards the south. The jet is forecast to strengthen and will surround the base of an intense upper-level trough placed over Italy during the forecast period, tilting the trough in a strongly negatively inclined position. In addition an intense subtropical jet should merge with the polar jet somewhere south of Greece, resulting in a strongly sheared environment.
As upper-level trough approaches from the west, pressure at lower levels will fall and GFS showed consistent signals during the past few runs that a well developed low pressure channel evolves south of Greece, shifting rapidly towards the northeast during the evening and night hours.
Forcing at mid-/upper-levels will be quite strong as well developed trough axis shifts eastwards ( adopting the aforementioned negative tilted position ).

SSTs of 21-23°C and a rapidly cooling lower troposphere result in a broad area of 500 - 1000 J/kg MLCAPE release, which is not excessively high, but in combination with those kinematic parameters it is more than enough. Mixing ratios of 10 g/kg and more and mid-level lapse rates of about 7K/km also confirm that this amount of instability release looks reasonable.

Thunderstorms should start to develop around 14-16Z south of Greece well ahead of the approaching cold front and thunderstorms are forecast to rapidly increase in coverage.
Another focus for enhanced convective activity will be the cold front itself, racing eastwards and reaching western Crete at about 03Z.

Thunderstorms will also significantly increase over Greece and the Aegean Sea at 22-00Z onwards as upper-level trough approaches from the west / southwest.

Right now there are still some model-to-model and run-to-run uncertainties especially regarding the strength of the surface channel ( resulting in shifts of shear maxima and shear variations over one place from one run to the next one of more than 20m/s ! ).
It looks like that there are 2 areas of an enhanced severe weather risk:

Crete and SW Turkey:

Shear in this area is impressive with 0-3km shear of 30-40m/s!, a belt of 10-15m/s LL shear, 0-1km SRH values of 200-300 J/kg and 600 - 800J/kg SRH at the lowest 3km!
Winds at 850hPa are forecast to reach 25-30m/s and about 35m/s at 700hPa and despite the fact that the atmosphere ahead of the cold front stays quite warm, moderately steepened lapse rates and increasing 0-3km CAPE release hint on an increasing risk of downward mixing of those wind speeds to the surface. Dependant on the final storm mode, severe-damaging wind gusts will be the main threat especially in bowing storms and mesoscale convective systems. In addition, shear vector stands nearly orthognoal on any developing line of storms, increasing the risk of longer lived, discrete thunderstorms.
Strong moisture inflow, deep convergence and not too high LCLs also point to the risk of tornadoes....even strong tornadoes will be a distinct possibility.
The same for the cold front, although main risk should be a severe - damaging wind gust threat. As cold front advances eastwards, it becomes more parallel aligned to the background flow and slows down. This could help to decrease the severe weather threat a little bit during morning hours.

SE- and E- Greece and the Aegean Sea:

Another area of big concern will be southern / eastern Greece, where the ingredient based severe weather forecast method points to a considerably enhanced tornado and severe wind gust risk.
LCLs are very low and as trough axis approaches from the west the wind field at all levels increases ( between 00 and 06Z).
LL shear of 15-20m/s and 250-400 J/kg SRH1 values will be present . We see no reason why storms should not be surface based, as strong and very moist inflow from the southeast establish during the night hours.
In addition, GFS 12Z again increased the winds at 850hPa, which could point to a potential widespread severe wind gust risk.

We decided not to issue a level-3 for this time as it is still not clear which area experiences the worst conditions ( a lot depends on the strength of the low pressure channel ) but parameters point to a potential severe weather event matching our level-3 criterion. Updates, if necessary will be issued later-on.

As a side-note: This looks like to be the first intense rain event since the devestating wild fires during this summer. Missing vegetation and long-lasting dryness over Greece should support a possible high-end flash-flood event.

....Central Mediterranean...

A constantly deepening surface low is forecast to leave the Tyrrhenian Sea during the evening hours, entering the western Ionian Sea during the latter part of the forecast period.
The severe wind gust / tornado threat will be augmented over Sicily as winds at 850hPa stay at 25m/s in addition to strong LL shear ( 0-1km shear at or above 15m/s and SRH1 values of up to 200J/kg ).

Otherwise LL shear will be enhanced over a broad area and as a result, tornadic storms can be expected over southern / central Italy, coastal areas of the eastern Aegean Sea and over northern Tunisia, mainly along the coastal areas, where LL shear gets maximized.

...Eastern Romania and extreme northern Bulgaria...

Although best shear and instability will be displaced, environment is still be conducive for an isolated tornado event. We therefore issued a marginal level-1, which could be downgraded in later updates."

http://www.estofex.org/

Disappointing weather forecasts... (photos)

2007-10-18T21:26:00.000+03:00

Well, although most of meteorology models were forecasting really bad and severe weather for North Greece, the rain wasn't that much, as expected and the precipitation no way reached 100mm Thursday and Friday (11&12/10/07)...
The forecasts really disappointed and in Thessaloniki the precipitation did not surpass 10-15mm only... The thunderstorms didn't struck so many areas and the phenomena were very local...For example, the precipitation was six times as much in some areas 100km west of Thessaloniki! On Friday after a rainy night (that gave only 9mm rain-amount) many Cumulus clouds were developing in the afternoon East (over the mountains) and South of Thessaloniki...

...and some hours later few Cumulonimbus clouds appeared.

From that day the weather turned sunny and the next two days were also windy and cold (6oC in the morning!), because of North wind, which makes clouds disappear in North Greece... But the forecasts weren't disappointing only for Thursday's and Friday's weather, but they were totally wrong about the whole week's weather (8/10-13/10)!! Thunderstorms were supposed to prevail over North Greece every day something, that didn't happen of course... However, the positive of this change of weather was, that it rained in Athens and in other areas in South Greece after 125 days!!! Unfortunately, the drought in Crete still remains... After these forecasts, another change of weather is supposed to happen from Saturday again. It seems to be a severe storm, but as last week nothing is sure yet...
Let's hope, that it's going to rain in areas, that there still is a problem of drought and that rain amounts in Pelloponisos will not be extremely high, cause floods will not be avoided after the forest fires there...

(Sorry for bad English...Unfortunately, I cant speak this language very well...)

October starts with thunderstorms (photos)

2007-10-04T16:44:00.000+03:00

Hello again!
October started with great thunderstorms here in North Greece!
While the weather was sunny in the rest of South Greece, many areas where struck by severe thunderstoms in North and South Greece. To be more specific, some Cumulus clouds were developing during the afternoon of the 30/9 and until nigth many Cumulonimbus had been created all over North Greece.
In Thessaloniki some lightnings were seen from Scopia, but the thunderstorm that appeared came to the city was from West. The first day of October had started with the arrival of a thunderstorm! Some thunderbolts hit the city, which caused some electricity-cuts, but during the storm it didn't rain that much...
Some video-pictures of lightnings

A video of the thunderstorm plus a video of a weak thunderstorm at 20/9/07.

The thunderstorm soon ended over Thessaloniki, but the lightnings continued over Thermaikos Gulf whole night.

Next day (1/10) new Cumulus clouds continued to develop and thunderstorms had covered a great area of North Greece. In Thessaloniki Cumulus clouds had become a Cumulonimbus over the mountains (East of Thessaloniki) and it soon started to rumbling during the afternoon. The ambolt of the Cb had covered the sky above my head and light drizzle started.

The sky was soon clear after the weakening of this thunderstorm, but new and big Cumuloimbus clouds appeared and they were really scaring. Two Cbs were merged into one and were coming near, as you can see in the Time laspe video below.

Unfortunately, this thunderstorm weakened, too and only some rumblings were heard...

All days since then are sunny, but something seems to change from Sunday (7/10)!
If thunderstorms will appear again, new photos will be uploaded!

6/8/07, Funnel Cloud in Greece (photos)

2007-09-30T17:30:00.002+03:00

Hi everybody! This is the first message I write on my Blog.
I'm writting about a really interesting phenomenon, that happened here in Greece (Thessaloniki) in August! It was a hot day with unstable weather, so I went to the flat roof to look for thunderstorms. And I noticed a Cumulonibus cloud North of Thessaloniki, which was "producing" small Cumulus.

While these Cumulus clouds, were getting closer to Hortiatis mountain, they were getting bigger, developing up to Cumulus congestus, as you can see in the picture.

But suddenly something strange happened! The Cumulus clouds were developing so rapidly, that they had already become a Cumulonibus cloud in 15 minutes!!!

The rain soon started under the Cumuloninbus cloud and some small mamatus appeared.
After watching the whole development I suddenly noticed something! A little funnel appeared from the Cumulonimbus cloud!!

The funnel was getting larger and the whole phenomenon lasted 15-20 minutes!!

And another thunderstorm appeared North.

This funnel cloud may not excite someone living in USA, but phenomenons like this do not appear that often in Europe, but they can be a nice surprise, since accidents do not happen.

Video and time lapses!

15 Time lapse videos from Norway

2007-09-16T15:18:00.001+03:00

Arendal, July 2007