3/12/05

1st National Symposium of Amateur Meteorologists

Foto: Katsios Nestoras

The first national symposium of amateur meteorologists was successfully concluded in Athens on the 3rd of December 2005.

The day's schedule began early in the morning at the Hellenic National Meteorological Service (EMY). We were warmly welcomed by the Director, Mr Kanteres and the section heads, Mr Ziakopoulos, Mrs Petrou and Mr Halkis. Our dear Meteorologists allowed the visitors a comprehensive tour of the Service's facilities, while at the same time they offered a detailed insight into the forecasting procedures.

We sincerely thank  them!

Lunch was happily consumed at a local taverna in the area of Pendeli.

Next stop was Athens Observatory, where the team of K. Lagoubardos, B. Kotroni and N. Matzarakis eagerly awaited the visitors at the Observatory's Presentation Room. The following amateur and professional meteorologists offered very well prepared presentetions: F Panagiotopoulos, G. Karagiannis, S. Bougioukas, D. Baikos, M. Dretakis and N. Matzarakis. Many interesting comments by Mr Th. Kolydas and Mrs X. Petrou were more than welcomed.

Many thanks to the research team of the Observatory!

Petros Vassiliou

28/11/05

Meteorology and Media

The recent heavy rainfalls are over. Let's take a look at the  precipitation heights in various Attica regions:

source : Hellasweather

Dionysos: 245mm
Zografou Polytexnoupoli: 192mm
Ilioupoli: 172.9mm
Chalandri: 158.4mm
Terpsithea: 151.2mm
Lambrini: 144.2mm
Haidari: 139.4mm
Politeia: 139.2mm
Zografou - Ilisia: 137.2mm
Nikaia: 136mm
Sepolia 135.1mm
Kifissia: 129.5mm
Bgethi: 120.1mm
Byronas: 100mm
Menidi: 97.9mm
Pl. Attikis: 97.6mm
Nea Smyrni 92.7mm
Kypseli: 87.2mm
Kalamaki: 76.2mm
P. Faliro: 74.6mm 

On almost all areas of Attica the 100mm mark was overwhelmed. Some areas received more than 150mm, while Dionisos recorded 245mm of rain!! Considering that climatic values of various Athens regions are around 70mm for the month of November, it is clear that more than double of the whole month's rain fell in just 3 days. If one takes into account the fact that the core of the heaviest rainfalls passed only a few Km SE of Athens, sparing the city of serious troubles, one can easily understand the seriousness of the recent meteorological event.

It is therefore fair to say that some media rushed to discredit the scientists (meteorologists) on Wednesday morning, even though the event was still in progress. We hope that in the future, newscasters (especially TV people) will show more restrain in criticising the national forecasters, even if that does not comply with the (barbaric) laws of TV popularity rates. We would hate to see the forecasters taking into consideration TV rates before issuing the next weather warning!

Petros Vassiliou

24/9/05

Forthcoming weather season starts with a bang!

A very interesting start of this winter's weather season resulted in many millimeters of rain (some of it was hail) and lots of spectacular thunderstorms over the city of Athens (picture above).

Looking back at last year's Autumn, the differences are evident, since virtually no accumulation was recorded before the 12th of October.

One can only hope for a phenomena-rich winter, after such a promising beginning.