More than 10,000 thunderbolts fell across Greece within twelve hours on Sunday, June 16, 2019, confirming that this summer will be most likely like the one of 2018 and quite different from the traditional Greek summers of previous years, that were hot and dry.
Map according to ZEUS system of the National Observatory of Athens
According to the National Observatory, the combination of hot and liquid masses with high atmospheric instability led to the large number of thunderbolts on Sunday.
Evening thunderstorms in Greece during the month of June is a natural phenomenon due to the atmospheric instability, notes meteo.gr, the service of the National Observatory.
However, it is not usual that thunderstorms are accompanied by large hailstones of diameter up to 5 cm and 6 cm as it happened in the regions of Ioannina, Epirus, Pella and Kozani, West Macedonia, on Sunday.
The unstable weather continued also on Monday, with rain-and thunderstorms also in south Athens where streets turned into rivers.
Video: Short after 1:30 Monday in south Athens
Rainfalls and thunderstorms but also hail are forecast also for Tuesday, June 18.
Regions affected will be: East mainland, North-West Aegean Sea, Central and North mainland, especially mountainous areas, also islands in East Aegean and locally in the Dodecanese.
I hope this summer 2019 will not go to history as “Hail Summer.”
