At the time when the sky of Athens, but also of many regions of our country, were painted “orange” by the African dust, in Finland it rained “spring snow”as characterized by the national media.
The temperature dropped in Helsinki below 0 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, while snowfall at such a time is a “rare or at least unusual phenomenon”, as a meteorologist reported to the television network MTV3.
Similar temperatures have been recorded in Finland in 1966, 1985 and 1988, while on Tuesday morning the temperature reached -4 degrees.
In fact, the weather drove the citizens “crazy”. At the beginning of April, the weather warmed up enough that drivers changed their winter tires to summer tires, which made it difficult to drive on the roads. Accordingly, Finnair announced that many flights were delayed due to the weather conditions, which will change drastically. Temperatures of 12-15 degrees Celsius are expected in the capital until the end of the week.
Apart from the capital Helsinki, the bad weather also caused problems in other cities in southern Finland.
Greece is “orange” from the dust
“As parts of Greece turn orange, Finland faces an unusually white week,” CNN also reported in an extensive report hosted Wednesday on its home page. It also broadcasts that in some areas in the south of the country the snow reached 20 cm in height grounding trams and delaying bus services.
CNN also reported the information of the EMY regarding the course of the African dust in Greece. “A yellow-orange dust haze from the Sahara desert has blanketed parts of Greece, creating spectacular scenes and prompting authorities to issue health warnings,” the report said.
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It also shared multiple photos and videos of social media users since Tuesday.
“Dust clouds moving from northern Africa to Greece and other areas are a phenomenon that occurs from time to time, bringing limited visibility and warnings for breathing hazards”, it says, while it is noted that we see similar phenomena in Cyprus and in areas of the eastern Mediterranean. In Cyprus, dust appeared several times in April.
African dust over Athens
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The American CNBC also “covered” the dust from Africa in Greece, while the German Bild wrote that “the dust from the Sahara is sending Greeks to the hospitals”. “The medical community warned the residents of Crete and Kalamata to be especially careful. In these areas, the number of citizens who went to hospitals reporting shortness of breath, cough and chest pain were much higher than usual,” Bild reported.
African dust over Athens
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After all, he spoke to the French News Agency the director of meteorological research at the Athens Observatory, Kostas Lagouvardos, stating: “This is the most serious incident of accumulation of dust and sand transported from the Sahara since March 21 and 22, 2018 when thick clouds covered mainly Crete”.
As he mentioned anyway the director of EMY, Thodoris Kolidas, PM2.5 and 10 particulates are trending downward, and from midday on Wednesday the atmosphere is gradually clearing.
Europe is warming twice as fast as the global average
Meanwhile Europe is the fastest-warming continent, with temperatures rising at about twice the global average, as two leading climate watchdogs reported on Monday, warning of consequences for human health, melting glaciers and economic activity.
The UN’s World Meteorological Organization and the European Union’s climate agency Copernicus said in a joint report that the continent has the opportunity to develop targeted strategies to accelerate the transition to renewable energy sources; such as wind, solar and hydropower, in response to the effects of climate change.
Average surface air temperature anomaly
C3S/ECMWF
Europe produced 43% of its electricity from renewable sources last year, up from 36% the previous year, the organizations said in their State of Europe climate report for the past year. More energy in Europe is produced from renewable energy sources than from fossil fuels for the second year in a row.
However, the last five-year averages show that temperatures in Europe are now 2.3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels; compared to a global high of 1.3 degrees Celsius, the report said.
Europe’s climate report
C3S/ECMWF
It is noted that the Paris agreement sets out a global framework for avoiding dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2 °C and aiming to limit it to 1.5 °C.
The authors of the report pointed out certain exceptions, reporting how temperatures were below average in Scandinavia and Iceland.
