Greek Islands Are Covered in Snow in Rare Weather Event

The Greek islands have been completely covered in snow since Sunday in a once-in-a-lifetime weather event. Locals say that the last time this amount of snow fell on the Cyclades was decades ago.

Syros, Naxos, Tinos, Andros, Mykonos, Santorini, and the other islands of the Cyclades are covered in a white veil of snow as the storm “Elpis” hits Greece, including the mainland.

The heavy snowfall has caused many problems in the islands that lack the infrastructure to cope with such weather events.

In Naxos many mountain villages have been cut off from the rest of the island, despite the continuous efforts of snowplows to keep roads open.

Reports from naxostime.gr say that the fire service had been called to free citizens from their cars.

According to cyclades24, Andros Island was hit hardest by the snowfall.

Syros Island

Mykonos woke up on Sunday covered in snow, a rare event on the cosmopolitan Greek island.

Locals captured the fairytale scenes as snow covered the famous beaches of the island, such as Psarou, Super Paradise, and Elia.

Schools on Greek islands hit by snow close on Monday and Tuesday

Following the heavy snowfall, schools of all levels in the Cyclades will remain closed on Monday the 24th and Tuesday the 25th of January.

By the decisions made by the Municipalities, the operation of the school units was suspended for 48 hours in most of the Cycladic islands, until there is an improvement of the weather.

Schools are closed not only on all major islands, including Syros, Naxos, Paros, Tinos, Andros, Mykonos, Santorini, but also on the smaller isles such as Amorgos.

According to instructions from the Ministry of Education, teaching hours will not be lost, however, as the e-learning system is implemented, as was the case during the lockdown period.

Snow will cover large part of mainland Greece Monday and Tuesday

Snow will cover a large part of Greece, even at the lower elevations, on Monday.

The second and most severe part of the storm known as “Elpis” is in progress on Monday all across the country. Severe weather conditions started hitting Greece on Saturday.

According to the National Meteorological Service (EMY), the main characteristics of the second wave will be very low temperatures; heavy snowfall — even in lowland areas of northern and eastern Greece as well as in the Aegean islands — while northerly winds of 8 to 9 Beaufort are expected to blow in the area.

The extreme weather will affect Greece on Monday and Tuesday when snow is expected even in the plains of the country, including the Attica region.

Schools will remain closed throughout Attica on Monday and Tuesday, January 24-25, due to the extreme weather conditions for precautionary reasons and taking into consideration the safety of students and professors.

The state has advised citizens to avoid any unnecessary travel.

The Civil Protection Ministry has sent an SMS using the EU-wide 112 emergency number to residents of parts of Central Greece warning of “dangerous snowfall in your area over the next 48 hours” and counseling them to avoid unnecessary trips.