Weather
Icy winter weather has been blasting through Europe and wreaking havoc as it goes, and even the usually sun-kissed beaches and monuments of Greece are unable to escape. A huge dip in the jet stream has allowed polar air to plunge into the normally temperate Mediterranean, dumping snow in Greece’s capital and beach resort towns, report Gizmodo.
On Tuesday, unlikely pictures emerged across the country as snow covered iconic tourist attractions like the Acropolis and bent olive and cypress trees’ branches, did the rounds on the internet.
Athens was far from the only locale to see snow. The coastal resort town of Thessaloniki in northeast Greece was blanketed in snow. Drone footage shows the incongruous scenes of snow on the Mediterranean beaches that are normally a tourist hot spot (at least a few locals still decided to take a polar bear plunge).
Reuters reports that the northern Greek city of Florina recorded an all-time low of -9 degrees Fahrenheit (-23 degrees Celsius). Meanwhile much of the country has seen temperatures dip 20 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) below normal for this time of year.
The wild weather across Europe has seen ski resorts in the Alps get up to 100 inches of snowfall, creating deadly avalanche conditions and claiming lives. Winter storms have also battered northern Europe with winds and coastal flooding, including some of the worst flooding in decades in Denmark.
