Snow covers Psiloritis peaks in October, geologist calls it extremely rare
Snow appeared on the peaks of Mount Psiloritis in early October, captured in images taken by a resident of Amari. Charalambos Fasoulas, a geologist at the Natural History Museum of Crete, told neakriti.gr the event is extremely rare, adding he does not recall a similar occurrence at this time of year.
Fasoulas attributed the snowfall to an unusual atmospheric system that affected Crete, rather than a typical weather pattern. He said the system originated mainly from the Siberia region rather than the usual northwesterly flow, and passed over an Aegean Sea that is currently very warm, with the wider Mediterranean recording exceptionally high temperatures this year, which he described as a new factor.
“This warm air rose very quickly to altitude, turned into snow because of the cold upper atmosphere, and reached the peaks of Psiloritis,” he said.
Record rainfall in the mountains
Fasoulas also addressed recent extreme rainfall across Crete, describing unprecedented volumes of water that fell within just a few days. Mountain areas, he said, received rainfall close to an entire hydrological year’s worth in that short period, and meteorologists have separately said the storm ranks among the worst in 20 years.
According to Fasoulas, the greatest rainfall fell in the mountain zone, where rocks absorbed significant quantities of water and limited how much drained directly into streams. He said a station above Anogeia, at an altitude of around 1,000 metres, recorded roughly one metre of rain over five days — meaning a full year’s worth of water fell in about a week, which he said has not happened before, including during early October specifically.
In the mountains, steep slopes combined with the huge volumes of water produced strong flows that carried boulders, soil, sand and large amounts of mud, Fasoulas said. The greatest danger, he added, lies in the lowland zone, where water from tributary streams converges before reaching the sea; flooding has already affected farmland on the Lasithi Plateau, where questions have emerged over a damaged floodgate and reduced tunnel flow.
Fasoulas said it was fortunate that the heaviest rain fell on the mountain zone rather than the lowlands, because the porous nature of the mountain rock absorbed much of the water that fell on it rather than channeling it all into streams. Had the rock been impermeable, he said, the resulting flooding would have been far more extensive in both the mountains and the lowlands.
Calls for flood-control measures
Looking ahead, Fasoulas said forecasters expect settled weather for roughly the next two weeks, after which further predictions become difficult given the broader influence of the global El Niño phenomenon, whose effects cannot be precisely determined. He noted Greece has experienced increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather events in recent years, citing Storm Daniel, which struck Thessaly, as an example.
Fasoulas said planning needs to move forward on check dams in the mountain zone, with particular attention to previously identified hazardous points such as bridges and other infrastructure. Authorities have said Crete’s storms are easing but saturated ground keeps flood risk elevated, a point Fasoulas said reinforces the need for such measures.
Check dams, he said, prevent water from reaching high velocities, which in turn limits erosion and reduces the amount of debris carried down to the lowland zone, significantly cutting the risks involved. He added that authorities also need to ensure clear, safe pathways for water to reach the sea, saying half-measures are no longer sufficient given how extreme these weather events have become.
