Dangerous storm weather called DANIEL has started to sweep across Greece since early Monday with stormy winds, torrential rainfalls and hail.Coming from the North-West, DANIEL is forecast to pour tonnes of water, some 500 tonnes of rain per hectare expected to fall in Fthiotida, Magnesia, central Greece.
Floods fear is high due to the wildfires in summer.
Over 7,000 lightning bolts have struck until Monday afternoon, the meteo service of the National Obstervatory of Athens had recorded.
Video: Rainfall Sept 4, 2023
Storm and rain weather DANIEL is considered by foreign meteorologists as one of the worse in Europe.
Absolutely unreal. Latest ECMWF based Swiss 4×4 km HD model run remains off the charts with forecast rainfall across Thessaly, Greece over the next 48 hours. 2,000 mm in 48 hours is highly unlikely to occur but it shows the extreme rainfall potential of this event.
I can’t… https://t.co/UcYYym2YG2 pic.twitter.com/SuNymSIXiG
— Nahel Belgherze (@WxNB_) September 4, 2023
Warning message to residents
A message via emergency line <112> was sent to the residents in the prefectures of Pieria, Thessaly, Sporades, Evia, Fthiotida and Thessaloniki warning them of dangerous weather phenomena in their area from the evening hours on Monday, September 4, and for the next 24 hours. The message has called them to limit their movements.
The message states: “Dangerous weather phenomena (strong storms-lightning-hailfalls) from the evening hours today and for the next 24 hours in Pieria, Thessaly, Sporades, Evia and Fthiotida. Limit movements during the phenomena and follow the instructions of the Authorities.”
Heavy rainfalls
It is recalled that 1 mm of rain corresponds to one liter of water on a surface of 1 square meter (or one ton in one acre).
According to the meteo map, the areas where the very high levels of rain will be received are:
- Thessaly (Magnesia, Trikala, Karditsa, eastern parts of Larissa Prefecture)
- Sporades islands
- Pieria
- Eastern Mainland (Fthiotida, Viotia
- Eastern Peloponnese (Western Corinth, Argolida, Eastern Arcadia)
- South-West Peloponnese (Messinia)
Driver rescue in Central Greece
Alarm sounded in Lamia, central Greece, shortly before 3:00 p.m. on Monday when a car with a 43-year-old driver was swept away by the rushing waters of Xiria stream in Roditsa.
The sudden downpour that preceded swelled the stream which in the previous days was accessible. The driver did not understand the danger and was swept away by the waters several meters away.
Video: Driver rescue
He climbed onto the roof and firefighters managed to free him, as local media lamiareport.gr recorded.
In Evia it has been raining since Monday morning
Video: Rain in Hiliadou camping
Also earlier on Monday, the island of Corfu was hit by the storm that caused disruption in the operation of the international airport and power outages.