Greece in the grip of snow and low temperatures

The cold cyclone, which meteorologists warned about a week ago, has arrived in Greece and brought with it real winter. The snow, which started falling yesterday afternoon on the mountains Parnitha, Pendeli and Imitos around Athens, gradually covered the houses in the northern suburbs. Snow is falling in all high places, even in Crete, where the mountains were white even on Monday.
Snowfalls caused serious problems on the roads of Athens. From the morning traffic police reported blocked streets and heavy traffic on all central avenues because of the sleet that turns the asphalt into an ice rink. Driving on mountain roads must be done only with chains.

By order of the port authorities sailing from Piraeus and Lavrio was suspended. Routes towards the Cycladic Islands from the port of Rafina are not being serviced. Athens airport cancelled flights to Ikaria, Milos and Kalymnos, due to bad weather on the three islands.
There are interrupted traffic road sections in Evros, East Macedonia - Thrace, Attica, Western Macedonia, Central Macedonia, Thessaly, Central and Western Greece, Peloponnese and in the area of ​​Chania in Crete.
Rainfall is expected mainly in the southern part of Greece, and snowfall, in the high and low mountain areas, will continue. The temperature in Athens is between 4 and 8 degrees Celsius.
In Thessaloniki the weather is cloudy and there are 4-5 Beaufort north and northwest winds. Temperatures are between -2 and 7 degrees Celsius.
It is expected that on Thursday the weather will improve. According to the Greek Weather Service snowfall will continue in the high places in the areas of Magnisia, Evia, the central-eastern part of the country, eastern Peloponnese, Cyclades, Dodecanese and Crete. Snow will fall even in lower areas in eastern Greece and Evia and rain or sleet in the rest of the country.
A change in weather is expected to occur rapidly in the late afternoon and there will be snowfall only in northern Crete. In the rest of the country it will be mostly cloudy, and in some parts it will be sunny. There will be north-west winds, 3-4 on the Beaufort scale. In eastern Greece they will be much stronger - 5-7 Beaufort, and in the central and southern areas of the Aegean Sea winds will reach 8 Beaufort.
A slight increase in temperature is expected in northern and western Greece. However, during the night and early morning the central and northern regions will be icy.