Storm - Sfakia

[Barny]

[attachment=774:plak.jpg][attachment=773:plak2.jpg]


            Barny

[Barny]

[attachment=775:plak3.jpg]

      Barny

[Barny]

[attachment=776:plak4.jpg]

         Barny

[Steve Jones]

I had an email from Markos telling me that the restaurants at Mousses and Sofia were affected so I guess that all of the beachside restaurants have had water damage of some sort. They are all very vulnerable and exposed to a storm like this but I guess it happens once in a generation.

I wish them all the best and hope that the damage was not as bad as we fear.

Steve

[Stuart & Hilary]

I had an email from Markos telling me that the restaurants at Mousses and Sofia were affected so I guess that all of the beachside restaurants have had water damage of some sort. They are all very vulnerable and exposed to a storm like this but I guess it happens once in a generation.

I wish them all the best and hope that the damage was not as bad as we fear.

Steve

This may be of interest,

www.west-crete.com/rain-white-mountains.htm


Stuart

[Ploppy]

This may be of interest,

www.west-crete.com/rain-white-mountains.htm


Stuart

Very interesting to a weather buff like me.

Here is the Samaria Weather Stations page here run by the National Observatory of Athens.

They have other stations across Crete, see the map here. Green onesare ones run by the National Observatory of Athens, blue are personal and yellow genrally airports. Closest to Plakias is Spili. Some like Paleochora, Falasarna & Chania have webcams.

So lets look at the 3rd of Feb which looked like one heck of a day (use pervious month link at bottom of the page):

Samaria

MEAN DEG DEG WIND DOMDAY TEMP HIGH TIME LOW TIME DAYS DAYS RAIN SPEED HIGH TIME DIR------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3 4.4 6.2 10:10 1.3 21:40 13.9 0.0 264.0 18.0 80.5 9:50 SE

264mm of rain! Over 10 inches of rain!

Compare to Spili:

MEAN DEG DEG WIND DOMDAY TEMP HIGH TIME LOW TIME DAYS DAYS RAIN SPEED HIGH TIME DIR------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3 10.7 12.2 18:30 8.9 23:30 7.7 0.0 48.8 9.0 56.3 10:00 W


Not nearly as impressive but still nearly 2 inches and beats my daily record :-(

Here is my back garden for comparison:

Paulies Garden:


Have to see if I can get some sort of Crete vs Housnlow comparison page up on my website. Will make for depressing reading.

[Stuart & Hilary]

This may be of interest,

www.west-crete.com/rain-white-mountains.htm


Stuart

Very interesting to a weather buff like me.

Here is the Samaria Weather Stations page here run by the National Observatory of Athens.

They have other stations across Crete, see the map here. Green onesare ones run by the National Observatory of Athens, blue are personal and yellow genrally airports. Closest to Plakias is Spili. Some like Paleochora, Falasarna & Chania have webcams.

So lets look at the 3rd of Feb which looked like one heck of a day (use pervious month link at bottom of the page):

Samaria

MEAN DEG DEG WIND DOMDAY TEMP HIGH TIME LOW TIME DAYS DAYS RAIN SPEED HIGH TIME DIR------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3 4.4 6.2 10:10 1.3 21:40 13.9 0.0 264.0 18.0 80.5 9:50 SE

264mm of rain! Over 10 inches of rain!

Compare to Spili:

MEAN DEG DEG WIND DOMDAY TEMP HIGH TIME LOW TIME DAYS DAYS RAIN SPEED HIGH TIME DIR------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3 10.7 12.2 18:30 8.9 23:30 7.7 0.0 48.8 9.0 56.3 10:00 W


Not nearly as impressive but still nearly 2 inches and beats my daily record :-(

Here is my back garden for comparison:

Paulies Garden:


Have to see if I can get some sort of Crete vs Housnlow comparison page up on my website. Will make for depressing reading.

Very impressive. A bit different to my occassional reading of the temperature and the odd diary record. Presumably 10" of rain in Hounslow would see it floating away!!

[Mike G]

I think I picked up a fact several years ago that Rhodes is the driest part of Greece, with an annual rainfall approximating to London. As London's is reasonably spread over the year and Rhodes' in the summer only, Rhodes is signifiacantly wetter than London in winter. The obvious conclusion from this is that all of Greece is substantially wetter than lowland England in the winter months; a good enough reason for there not being winter package holidays to Greece.

Mike

[John R]

The obvious conclusion from this is that all of Greece is substantially wetter than lowland England in the winter months; a good enough reason for there not being winter package holidays to Greece.

Mike

No sure about the above. I think that the heavy Crete rainfall is localised geographically (mountains) to a considerable extend. I have been looking at the Sfakia web cams every day since we departed Plakias in early October (anorak that I am !!!) and there has been virtually no rainfall between then and now at Sfakia. It has been warm and sunny almost continuously. Very different only a few miles away in the mountains. Indeed the temperatures up to late December were very pleasant indeed.  I would have happily spent a prolonged period of time there this winter. Maybe not warm enough at all times for far enders but perfect weather for nearly everything else. I think the South coast weather can be fairly reliable in Winter. However perhaps not reliable enough for many package tours but I do wish there were some direct flights available in Winter.

John

[Regulars since 1992]

Yes, it's a shame that Jet2 only fly to Crete from Leeds Bradford between mid May and late September, although I know the Newcastle end date is a bit later. Maybe things will change re LBA if demand is sufficient. I'm sure Jet2, like any business, is dictated to by the laws of supply and demand.

[John R]

Yes, it's a shame that Jet2 only fly to Crete from Leeds Bradford between mid May and late September, although I know the Newcastle end date is a bit later. Maybe things will change re LBA if demand is sufficient. I'm sure Jet2, like any business, is dictated to by the laws of supply and demand.

Totally agree. Trouble is that supply and demand can be a bit like the chicken and egg conundrum !!!

John

[Regulars since 1992]

Yes, John, I was wondering just how Jet2 might be able to accurately assess potential demand without actually offering the flights for sale for at least a trial period. April ought to be a good bet for them, particularly when Easter falls in that month, and perhaps October too, but maybe flights between November and March might not sell enough seats to make them commercially viable.

[John R]

Yes, John, I was wondering just how Jet2 might be able to accurately assess potential demand without actually offering the flights for sale for at least a trial period. April ought to be a good bet for them, particularly when Easter falls in that month, and perhaps October too, but maybe flights between November and March might not sell enough seats to make them commercially viable.

Yes - I suspect that their October flights from Newcastle may be a trial to test the viability of extending into that month at other airports. I would have thought that if viable from Newcastle then surely from other airports.

[Mike G]

The obvious conclusion from this is that all of Greece is substantially wetter than lowland England in the winter months; a good enough reason for there not being winter package holidays to Greece.

Mike

No sure about the above. I think that the heavy Crete rainfall is localised geographically (mountains) to a considerable extend. I have been looking at the Sfakia web cams every day since we departed Plakias in early October (anorak that I am !!!) and there has been virtually no rainfall between then and now at Sfakia. It has been warm and sunny almost continuously. Very different only a few miles away in the mountains. Indeed the temperatures up to late December were very pleasant indeed.  I would have happily spent a prolonged period of time there this winter. Maybe not warm enough at all times for far enders but perfect weather for nearly everything else. I think the South coast weather can be fairly reliable in Winter. However perhaps not reliable enough for many package tours but I do wish there were some direct flights available in Winter.

John

OK, they have had a dry winter up until the recent storm, but the stats are over many years. Paul (Ploppy) knows about weather matters and I would be interested in his comments.

Mike