Topsy turvy weather in Europe by Elizabeth Saary
The weather in the UK has been rather mild for some time now. There have been the odd nights where a few locations have recorded sub-zero temperatures, but many places have been frost free. It has been interesting to note that it has actually been milder here than certain parts of Europe where you might not normally expect the weather to be colder than the UK.
The first place that caught my eye was Corfu. Frost is not particularly common here – the average overnight temperature in early February is 6C. However, early this morning a minimum value of -1C was recorded. This had a lot to do with the cold winds from eastern Europe currently affecting the Mediterranean.
It does seem to be a familiar theme being echoed right across the Mediterranean. The island of Crete and also Tangier and Algiers in northern Africa all reported minimum temperature values of up to 9C below their seasonal averages.
Parts of the eastern Mediterranean have also been playing host to large amounts of rain thanks to a low pressure system sat over the area. It is usual to find snow falling in the mountains of southern Europe during the winter months, but it is less common to find it at lower levels. It must have been a rare sight then when snow began falling on the island of Limnos recently. Current reports say that the amount of rain and snow that has fallen since Thursday morning is equivalent to an entire month’s worth of wet weather. The Greek capital Athens has also seen a rare covering of snow.
The topsy-turvy theme continues. It seems as though all the cold weather is in southern Europe at the moment, whilst more northern parts are much milder. I already mentioned the UK, but Scandinavia is in the same boat. Kirkeness, in northern Norway is well within the Arctic Circle. Nights are long at this time of year and average minimum temperatures of -14C are recorded. However, the past twenty four hours has seen the temperature fall no lower than -3C. Further south, in Trondheim the average overnight value is around -6C, but a relatively balmy 3C was recorded last night.
|
|
