Crete forecast: highs of 33°C Saturday as winds reach 5 Beaufort, Saharan dust returns
Temperatures in Crete are expected to reach up to 33°C on Saturday, September 12, with winds strengthening to as much as 5 Beaufort and Saharan dust returning to the atmosphere, according to meteo.gr, the weather service of the National Observatory of Athens.
Nationally, meteo.gr said rain and thunderstorms would develop mainly over central and northern Greece on Saturday, while northwesterly winds up to 5 Beaufort would blow over the seas. The forecaster noted a slight further rise in temperatures across the country, alongside a modest increase in dust concentrations in the atmosphere.
Cloud cover is forecast to increase through the day in many areas, bringing rain and isolated storms to Macedonia and parts of Epirus, with the phenomena expected to extend to Thessaly and parts of Central Greece by the afternoon and reach parts of Thrace by evening. Meteo.gr said atmospheric conditions favor the transport of dust from Africa, raising dust concentrations, and that visibility would be locally reduced overnight and early Sunday morning, mainly in western Greece. Similar late-summer patterns were noted in an earlier forecast for Crete’s weekend weather.
According to meteo.gr, temperatures in western Macedonia would range from 13 to 30–31°C, in the rest of Macedonia and in Thrace from 14 to 32–34°C and locally 35°C, in Thessaly from 15 to 35–37°C, in Epirus from 16 to 31–32°C, in the rest of the mainland from 16 to 34–36°C, in the Ionian islands from 18 to 31–32°C, and in the Aegean islands and Crete from 18 to 31–33°C, while the eastern Aegean islands would see highs of 35–36°C. The elevated readings follow a broader pattern in which temperatures across Greece have risen again ahead of an expected autumn shift.
Winds over both the Aegean and the Ionian seas were forecast to blow from the northwest at 4–5 Beaufort, while a westerly flow of similar strength would prevail over the southern Aegean and the Corinthian Gulf. Forecasters have said Crete’s dust and temperature trends this month have tended to track somewhat differently from the mainland, with an ECMWF trend pointing to milder cooling for Crete compared with other parts of the country.
