We see unprecedented images in the last 24 hours in Greece. The snow swept over islands, the snow was laid by the sea while Athens is covered by a white veil.
But what is the rare phenomenon with the snowstorms that hit Greece in the last hours?
Snowstorms - a weather phenomenon observed in extreme cold invasions - are created by clouds of vertical growth (storm clouds), which contain ice crystals and show precipitation on the ground in the form of snow, according to the meteorologists of the National Athos.
Snowstorms are formed when conditions of atmospheric instability prevail. This happens when the air near the ground is warmer than the air above it and thus, being forced to rise, forms clouds.
When this temperature difference between the air near the surface and the air above is large, then these upward movements are more violent and thus clouds of vertical growth can form. These strong upward movements in the storm clouds result in the creation of intense turbulence and collisions between the ice crystals that make up the cloud. These collisions result in the development of positively and negatively charged ice crystals that are distributed in different areas of the cloud and generate electrical potential either in the cloud or between cloud and ground.
Usually with the electrical activity in a snowstorm there is a more intense glow than in the simple rainstorms, because the light is reflected in the flakes. Also, thunder from electrical activity during a snowstorm can usually be heard only within a radius of 3 to 5 kilometers from the electrical discharge, as the flakes prevent the propagation of the sound wave.
Also during snowstorms there is a higher rate of snowfall than usually happens with the most stratified clouds, something that was observed today in the Eastern Continent and Attica.
Source: gr.euronews