Scientists link Crete’s storm damage to five-day rainfall and island’s terrain
Crete is now tallying widespread damage from a storm that brought five days of continuous and, in places, exceptionally heavy rain, with scientists pointing to the event’s unusual duration and the island’s terrain and coastal development as key factors behind the scale of destruction.
Speaking to in.gr, Kostas Lagouvardos, director of research at the National Observatory of Athens and head of its METEO unit, and Michalis Diakakis, assistant professor of extreme weather phenomena and natural disasters at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, explained what drove the storm’s impact.
Lagouvardos described the event as one of the most significant storms to hit Crete in at least 20 years, saying its defining feature was its unusually long duration. “It was a storm of very long duration. The rain lasted five whole days, from Wednesday to Sunday,” he said, adding that in several areas rain fell almost without interruption throughout that period, producing what he called unprecedented volumes of water.
Record rainfall across the island
According to Lagouvardos, heavy rainfall was recorded by National Observatory of Athens stations in all four of Crete’s regional units — Chania, Rethymno, Heraklion and Lasithi. At the Samaria station, more than 800mm of rain had been recorded by Sunday noon, while Anogeia exceeded 660mm.
Lagouvardos compared the totals to Athens, which records an average of around 420mm of rain over an entire year. “In many areas of Crete, this amount was exceeded within one or two days,” he said. Rainfall totals were lower in the island’s larger cities, though problems were still reported there, mainly due to gale-force winds, with the old town of Chania cited as an example.
One death reported amid extensive damage
Lagouvardos said the storm resulted in one loss of life, which he described as fortunate given the scale of the damage to infrastructure and farmland. In Mylopotamos, flooding destroyed homes and rural roads and swept away livestock. On the Lasithi Plateau, crops have remained submerged for four days, and he said draining the area was expected to take time. The Lasithi Plateau municipality has declared a state of emergency following the destruction to roads and crops.
Among the largest storms in two decades
Lagouvardos said the storm is among the largest to have hit Crete in the past two decades, comparable to a similar event in western Crete in February 2019 involving storms named “Chioni” and “Okeanida.” For comparison, the storm discussed here has also been described as ranking among the worst storms to affect the island in 20 years.
He said forecast data had indicated well in advance — at least three days before the rain began — that an intense, long-lasting rainfall episode was coming, though some areas received more rain than expected. Lagouvardos said he believed the storm could have been given a name, arguing that naming storms helps alert the public to the severity of an approaching event. He noted that during the storm’s second phase, from Friday onward, several 112 emergency alerts were issued.
Terrain and coastal development amplify flooding
Diakakis said Crete’s geomorphology plays a major role in the extent of such flooding. The island’s high mountains mean that large volumes of rain falling at elevation flow down toward lower-lying and coastal areas, causing erosion and flooding near the shoreline. At the Samaria station, where rainfall exceeded 800mm, rescuers have been unable to reach eight people trapped by the rain inside the gorge.
He added that dense construction along Crete’s coastline, particularly on the island’s northern side, compounds the problem. Hotels, older settlements and densely built areas restrict the natural flow of water to the sea, a pattern he said occurs along most of the north coast and in several areas of the south coast as well.
Altered streams and planning concerns
Diakakis also pointed to interference with natural streambeds, many of which have been narrowed or converted into roads and built-up areas, as a factor worsening the effects of such storms. He said the broader conclusion was that an extremely rare or extreme weather event is no longer required to cause major damage, and that spatial planning, how areas are developed, and the preparedness of residents and authorities now play a decisive role.
