The Hellenic National Meteorological Service (EMY) issued an emergency weather warning on Tuesday afternoon, December 23, alerting the public to a deterioration in weather conditions during the Christmas period, with heavy rain and thunderstorms forecast across much of Greece.
According to the bulletin, the severe weather will begin late on Tuesday in the Ionian Sea region and is expected to spread on Wednesday, December 24, to western Greece, as well as parts of central and northern mainland Greece and islands in the northern and eastern Aegean.
Conditions are forecast to gradually improve in western regions during the night from Wednesday into Thursday, while in the rest of the country the phenomena are expected to ease by Christmas Day afternoon.
Regions Expected to Be Affected
The EMY forecasts locally intense rainfall and thunderstorms in the following areas:
- Ionian Islands: from late Tuesday evening through late Wednesday night, December 24.
- Epirus, western Thessaly (Karditsa and Trikala), western and central Central Greece (Aetolia-Acarnania, Evrytania, Phocis), and western Peloponnese: from midday Wednesday until the early hours of Thursday, December 25.
- Western Macedonia: briefly during Christmas Eve night.
- Central Macedonia: from Wednesday afternoon through Christmas Day afternoon.
- Eastern Macedonia and the northeastern Aegean islands: from Wednesday evening until Thursday afternoon.
The meteorological service advises citizens to stay informed through official updates on its website and via the European Meteoalarm warning system. The emergency weather bulletin is expected to be updated within the next 24 hours.
