The polar cold from northeastern Europe has settled round over central Europe and the Balkans and is spreading more weakly to North Africa. The Eastern Mediterranean is slowly beginning to be affected, but not to the extent that the other areas further west and north of us are affected.
Temperatures locally in these areas reach up to 20 degrees below normal for the season. In fact, in Italy they have issued red alarms due to the polar cold. In the Adriatic Sea the winds have reached up to 13 kph.
At the same time, locally in these areas there is very heavy snowfall. Heavy snowfalls occur in the Central Mediterranean mainly due to the lake-effect snow phenomenon where locally the snow will reach the sea.
Our area will not be affected as much, in terms of very low temperatures compared to the areas west of our island, but we will have a lot of rain, storms, very strong to stormy winds and heavy snowfall mainly from 1100-1200 meters and up.
On Sunday night towards Monday morning, the snow will extend for a while up to the semi-mountains over 500 meters.
Locally and in other areas, mainly in the west and inland, a few snowflakes or sleet may fall at lower altitudes.
From Tuesday night the temperature will start to rise again with the snow being limited from 1100-1200 meters and above, as it will affect us another deep barometric from the southwest with very strong south winds.
Today, Saturday, we are affected by a deep barometric focusing on Turkey, accompanied by a cold front, which moves very slowly. The weather in the afternoon will be mostly cloudy with rain and local thunderstorms. In the western half of the island, mountainous and southern, the effects will be more frequent and intense. In a storm, hail is not ruled out. In the area of Troodos it will snow from 1500 meters and above with snowfall from 1600 meters, but gradually the snow will start to spread to other mountainous areas up to 1400 meters. The winds will be southwest 3 to 5 beauforts with gusts reaching 6 to 7 beauforts on the south, southwest and west coasts, but also mountainous.
Tonight, we will have the creation of a new barometric low in the area of Rhodes and as it approaches us from the west it will deepen. The weather will gradually become cloudy from the southwest with rain and thunderstorms all over Cyprus from time to time. In the western half of the island the effects will be locally intense and prolonged with the possibility of local floods. In the mountains above 1300 meters there will be heavy snowfall at intervals, with snowfall over 1400 meters.
The particularly rainy scene continues until the early hours of Monday, the temperature will drop significantly and the snowfall may gradually fall locally up to about 500 meters, with snowfall from 600-700 meters and above.
Snowflakes or sleet may fall locally and at lower altitudes in the early morning hours of Monday and during Monday mainly in the semi-mountainous Paphos but also in inland areas.
The weather is improving significantly from Monday morning, with the effects being limited mainly to the western half of the island and the mountains. From the early morning hours of Tuesday until around noon on Wednesday we are expected to be affected by a very deep barometric low from the southwest, which was created in the warm waters of Libya. This system in its passage will leave very heavy rainfall, where locally it will exceed 100mm per 12 hours and with winds that will reach or even maybe exceed 100kph. At the moment the epicenter of the system seems to pass slightly west of our area, to Crete and Rhodes, so we will not be affected to the extent mentioned above, but nevertheless it will leave us too much rain, strong as stormy winds and very heavy snowfall in the mountains.
Source: City