Snow in Athens

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Although Athens is famous for its fairly mild and “soft” winters, there are many times in the last decade that snow has made its appearance not only in the north but also in the central and southern coastal suburbs of the city.

Snow in Athens 2022 – Bad Weather Hope

Perhaps the biggest snowfall of the last decades, certainly the one that will go down in the modern history of Athens for the unbelievable inconvenience of thousands of residents and drivers of the city who got stuck in the main roads of the capital, culminating in the Attica Road fiasco with about 3,000 vehicles stuck for over 24 hours!

The bad weather Elpida (what do you have to say about the choice of name?) brought tens of centimetres of snow all over the basin, not even excluding the southern suburbs, resulting in hundreds of trees not being able to bear the weight, breaking and destroying cars and power cables.

The result? Thousands of households without electricity and heating for several days and with temperatures below zero! Sure, we all saw ‘infinite’ photos of happy Athenians enjoying this unprecedented snowfall, but we believe that the snowfall of January 2022 will leave a bitter taste and memories for the residents of the basin.

Videos of the coastal avenue and the pedestrian bridge in Alimos

Let’s not forget that due to the amount of snow and the low temperatures for many days, the roads and sidewalks were impassable due to the ice that formed in the days following the snowfall, while schools, public, banks and shops in the city were closed for up to 4 days! (we update this article on 29 Jan. 2022 and we learn that in the north of the city there is still ice and impassable spots today! However, the Attic sun did what it could to somewhat soften the terrors of ‘Hope’)

The bad weather of 2021 in Athens

The big snowfall of February 2021 (15-16/02/2021) with the name Medea (The previous big snowfalls in Athens and Attica did not have the honor of having a name since the naming of weather phenomena is a relatively recent phenomenon, perhaps borrowed from the United States, which has been giving names for decades, with most of us remembering mainly hurricanes such as the deadly Katrina and Andrews), brought suffering but nothing compares to the incredible and tragic situation of the basin in January 2022!

In most areas of Athens the snow reached up to 25 cm, making the city look more like a mountain village in Zagorochoria, Pelion or the Alps than the usually grey and “concrete” capital.

The snowfall on 16 February 2021 according to a press release of the National Weather Service, was one of the heaviest in the last 40 years! They started in the north of Attica from the early morning of 15/02 and affected all of Attica for 36 hours. Specifically, in Athens the snowfall was particularly intense and lasted 24 hours in all suburbs of the city, up to the southern suburbs where due to the higher temperatures it is quite rare to see beaches covered by a thick layer of snow.

The images of the snow-covered Acropolis and some daring skiers strolling through the snowy suburbs were truly unique and impressive.

Videos of the snow-covered Acropolis, the Parthenon and Theseion.

With the use of drones this snow in the center of Athens gave us really unique snapshots of unique monuments and places in Athens such as the Acropolis rock and the surrounding areas of Thiseion, the Olympic Zeus pillars and Thiseion. Enjoy the unique images in the drone videos below.
The first one is from the Up Stories channel

while the second video containing images of Thiseion, the pedestrian street Dionysiou Areopagitou, the Herodesion and of course the Acropolis and the Parthenon is from the channel Spyro leka

If you have any photos or videos you want to share with us please contact info@travelphoto.gr

The snowfall on social networks

As intense as the snowfall was the flood of images of snowy cityscapes on social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The peculiarity this time was that due to the coronavirus (Covid 19), most people preferred to upload pictures taken from their balconies. So snowball fights from the balconies for several people or just barely down to the entrance of their house or apartment building.

Power cuts due to snowfall

Even today (19/02) there are several households without electricity (3,500) in the northern suburbs such as Drosia, Ekali, Dionysos and others, due to major damage to the PPC network from falling trees that could not withstand the weight of snow.

Those experiencing a power supply problem are requested to contact DEDDIE (Operator of the Greek Electricity Distribution Network) at 11500 (nationwide) or +30 2111900500 if calling from abroad.

In addition, you can now make a damage claim online on the company’s homepage >> www.deddie.gr

The heaviest snowfalls in Athens in recent years

The National Meteorological Service EMY issued a press release where among other data the years with the most snow in Attica but mainly in the center of Athens are listed. Let’s remember some of them in the table below.

	DATE OF SNOWFALL	SNOW THICKNESS (CENTRE)	SNOWFALL CHARACTERISTICS
1	18-19/2/1983	10-15 cm	Great tension. Duration 12 hours
2	9/3/1987	10-15 cm	Great tension. Duration 12 hours
3	22-23/2/1992	10-12cm	Medium to high intensity. Duration 30-36 hours
4	18/3/1992	5-8 cm	Great tension. Duration 1 hour
5	4-4/1/2002	10-20 cm	High intensity at times. Total duration 48 hours
6	12-13/2/2004	10-15 cm	Very intense. Duration 20 hours
7	23-25/1/2006	5 cm	Moderate intensity. Total duration 30-40 hours
8	16-18/2/2008	15-25 cm	Very intense. Duration approximately 30 hours
9	14-17/2/2021	20 -25 cm	Very high intensity-Duration 36 hours in Attica and 24 hours in Athens

See all the photos || Stay in Athens

In contrast to the 1990s, when the Athenians in the centre and the south of the city saw snow only in 1992 (it must have been February ’92), in the first decade of the new millennium, the snowfall honoured the residents of Attica with its presence several times, thus giving special joy mainly to the kids who went out on the streets to enjoy this rare, for Athens, weather phenomenon.

January 2002

Specifically, in January 2002, the first snow of the new millennium fell on the streets of Athens. It snowed all over the city but did not cover the southern suburbs.

In the center, however, the snowfall was quite intense for about half an hour, so that the hill of Lycabettus, the hill of Filopappou, the alleys of Plaka and the rock of Acropolis were dressed in white even for about an hour and then the intensity decreased significantly and snow melted in just a few minutes.

The black and white photos of the pedestrian street of Dionysiou Areopagitou, right under the rock of the Acropolis and the Parthenon, are from January 2002 and specifically during the period of heavy snowfall. The shot was taken with an analog DSLR camera (Canon EOS 3000) and Ilford ISO 400 black and white film.

The winter of 2004

But the first really heavy snowfall for the capital came two years later, in February 2004. Specifically, snow started falling all over the city from the evening of February 12th, around 2 o’clock after midnight, and as a result it even covered the southern suburbs (Alimos, Paleo Faliro etc.).

The next morning, the 13th of February, everything was frozen, the temperature in the south was below zero and people of course did not miss the opportunity for a unique walk in the snowy parks and pedestrian streets next to the steaming sea of the Saronic Gulf.

Snowy mountains in the basin

The winter of 2005 was relatively normal for Athens as we did not have any severe weather phenomena in the city centre but some days only in the northern suburbs and of course the surrounding mountains of the basin and especially Parnitha and Penteli which were dressed 2-3 times in white.

Snow in instalments

The year 2006 started quite strongly with snowfalls in the city centre for two consecutive days. Specifically, on January 24 and 25 we had snowfall in both downtown and the southern suburbs. It was nowhere near the intensity of February 2004, but it was enough to make it pave even for a few hours on 25 January up to Kallithea and Moschato. The most central hills like Filopappou and Lycabettus were white for almost the whole day.

Winter and snowfalls of 2008 in Athens

And we arrive in 2008 which saw perhaps the most intense snowfall phenomenon in Athens and specifically in the central and southern suburbs for the entire decade from 2000 to 2010. The first samples we had from the afternoon of Friday 16 February when it started snowing and snowing in northern suburbs such as Politia and Ekali. That evening there was quite cold (around -5 degrees Celsius) and too much wind.

The snowfall was heavy but the flakes were very thin and drifted in all directions depending on the mood of the strong north wind that blew across the basin that night. In the north it had settled but the major problem for pedestrians (although the truth is that not many were out and about that night) was the ice that had set in very early on mainly due to the strong wind and of course the very low temperature. The next day, Saturday, February 16, 2006, it snowed in the central and southern areas but not enough to break it up. Of course all that changed by Saturday night when the bad weather continued with even more intense phenomena.

Specifically, in the northern suburbs the strong winds subsided but the snowfall continued with even greater intensity. This time the flakes were quite large and combined with the prevailing apnea, they dressed everything in white. The snow in several places had reached 40 inches in most of the northern suburbs of the city and travel was only possible with anti-slip chains even very close to the city centre.

On the morning of Sunday, February 17, 2008 in the southern suburbs the situation was somewhat confusing, you thought that whatever was going to rain had fallen during the night and that we were heading for a normalization of the weather. In fact, the little snow that had accumulated overnight was starting to melt. And while we were expecting the temperature to rise somewhat at noon, the weather abruptly changed for the worse (or better, whichever way you take it).

Intense cold, heavy clouds and within half an hour the thin snow that fell now and then became heavy snowfall that lasted 2-3 hours and as a result everything was dressed in white. From the streets, the sidewalks to the park of Ostria, the boats and boats in the Marina of Alimos and of course the beaches of Kalamaki and Paleo Faliro. The sand disappeared and the snow stopped right where the sea started.

The intensity of the phenomenon and the amount of snow was quite high and of course rare for the coastal suburbs of Athens. In the afternoon around 7 o’clock the phenomenon was limited until 10 o’clock in the evening when it started to snow again with great intensity until 4-5 o’clock in the morning!!!! As a result of this phenomenon, central streets of Athens and the southern suburbs such as Amfithea and the coastal avenue “disappeared” under the snow! That Sunday night, there was really nothing moving on the streets and all you could hear was the unique sound of heavy snowfall!

The next morning, a few hours after we described, everything was in white and illuminated by the unique light of the Athenian sun that had made a brilliant appearance as if to remind us that it is the dominant light of the landscape even in the heart of such an intense winter for Athens.

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Photos from the snowy Athens

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Οι περισσότερες φωτογραφιες ειναι απο την Μαρίνα Αλίμου και το πάρκο της καφετέριας όστρια στον Άλιμο. / Most photos are from Alimos Marina and Ostria cafe park in Alimos, south Athens