Residents of several regions across northern Greece, including the north Aegean islands of Samothrace, Limnos, Aghios Efstratios and Thassos, were issued severe weather warnings via SMS on their mobile phones on Tuesday afternoon, as the first major storm of the autumn season rolled into Greece from the northwest.
Although accompanied by warnings of flash flooding or worse, the storm, dubbed “Atena”, in line with the now “trendy” practice by weather forecasters to christen low-pressure fronts, the rainfall was welcome in many regions. The summer of 2024 in Greece, in fact, was possibly the hottest since records have been kept, and among the driest.
The front also poured much-needed precipitation on the greater Athens-Piraeus areas and other regions in the “at-risk zone” for water shortages.
More than 50 calls to the fire brigade were made from the greater Athens area, mainly to pump out floodwaters from buildings, fallen trees and to extricate people from elevators due to the severe weather.
