February 2021 Greek cold wave

• Comment: nypost and Greek city times are not reliable sources. ―Qwerfjkl talk 09:40, 26 July 2021 (UTC)

• Comment: Need to improve WP:MOS Antan O 16:19, 23 July 2021 (UTC)

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February 2021 European cold wave

Trees under a blanket of snow with a church as a backdrop on 16 February
Type	Cold wave
Formed	13 February 2021
Lowest temperature	-25,1°C (-13,18 °F) in Neos Kaykasos village, Florina.
Fatalities	3 deaths
Areas affected	Western Europe, Central Europe, Greece

a railroad covered in snow

Trees covered in snow

An unusually cold period occurred in Europe from 13 to 16 February 2021 as a result of a large extratropical low over the Atlantic that developed snow in Ireland and especially extreme snow in parts of Iceland. The European continent remained under the effect of deep freeze, spreading south following a major snowstorm that occurred in Greece on 13–17 February. The developing Mediterranean frontal system would develop a major winter storm and heavy snowfall with blizzard conditions across the southern Balkans. As the high pressure system over western Europe pushed the cold air mass further, the cold moved south.

Affected areas

The cold wave that occured during the period of 13 to 17 February was of great significance because of the fact that snow fell in the most parts of Greece. Apart from the Ionian islands and the west seaside, snow even fell in Aegean islands and in Crete. According to meteorological stations of the National Meteorological Service snow fell in Cyclades (Mykonos island), seaside of Crete (Heraklion, Souda) and in Dodecanese (Kos), places that rarely has it been seen snowing.

Three people were lost (2 in Euboea island and 1 in Crete). On 13 February the cold air mass reached Northern Greece in Thessaloniki area while to the rest of the country was raining after a prolonged period of hot weather with increased temperatures. Cold air moved south and by Sunday had reached the Attika region with brief snowfalls over 550 meters in mountainous regions. On 15 February in the very first hours snowfalls started appearing in north suburbs and until dawn the whole city had already besieged from brief snowfalls.

Before midnight the weather deteriorated rapidly because of wind convergence in the lower layers of the atmosphere and by 16 February the whole Attika region was blanketed by deep snow. Weather system "Medea" caused traffic havoc and numerous disruptions in the city including a halt in vaccinations for COVID-19 pandemic. Because wet snow is heavier than dry snow many trees did not withstand the heavy weight and fell down blocking main roads, especially in northern suburbs where many trees fell on power lines cutting electricity and also cutting water supply for five days as local residents claimed.

Despite all the problems the weather phenomenon caused lots of people braved the cold and the COVID-19 curfew and got out of their homes to play with the snow or even go for skiing like the Norwegian ambassador with his daughter in Filothei hills as he wrote on Twitter. Meteorologists reported that the last time the center of Athens saw so much snow was in February 2008. Numerous photos of famous landmarks were captured under the view of a white blanket like Panathenian stadium, Filopapos Monument, and the Acropolis.

The weather phenomenon was so intense that municipality of Athens needed to dispatch orange snowplows for the first time in weather history to clear streets of ice and snow given that ambulances had to arrive to the hospitals fast in case of emergency of a coronavirus positive person that needed immediate treatment and furthermore presidential guards were given heavy woolen coats to get protected from the cold while the guard change could only be done with the use of a military vehicle. Despite the fact that the city and the whole country was under lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic and temperatures around freezing many residents got out of their homes to capture photos of popular districts, play snowball fights, ride a bicycle or even go for swimming.

The total damages in Greece were so great that authorities called out armed forces to cope with more than 800 downed trees in Athens, hundreds more in nearby areas, and 500 damaged electricity posts on Euboea island.

Climatological data for some iconic locations on 16 February are the following:

Gazi area in downtown with an elevation of 55 m recorded a low temperature of -0.8 °C (30.56 °F), highest was 2.3 °C (36.14 °F) and the average temperature of the day was 0.5 °C (32.9 °F).

Piraeus the greatest port of the country with elevation 29 m recorded a low temperature of -0.6 °C (30.92 °F), highest was 3.2 °C (37.76 °F) with an average temperature of 1.2 °C (34.16 °F).

Alimos area in south suburbs near the sea with elevation of 25 m recorded a low temperature of -0.7 °C (30.74 °F), highest was 1.7 °C (35.06 °F) and the average of the day was 0.4 °C (32.72 °F).