Storms over Greece and Turkey: At least five dead and massive flooding

Status: 08:01 am | Reading Time: 3 minutes

BAt least five people died in floods caused by heavy rains in Turkey and Greece on Tuesday. According to the governor, two people died in Istanbul. Emergency services said two more people died in the city of Kirklareli in northwestern Turkey. So four people are missing.

Istanbul’s streets turned into raging rivers, and a metro station was partially submerged after an overnight storm. According to media reports, dozens of people had to be brought to safety from the city library. Images of flooded cars and market stalls were seen on television and online networks.

Another person died in central Greece due to storm “Daniel”. A spokesperson for the fire brigade confirmed this to broadcaster ERT on Tuesday. Cattle breeder killed by wall collapse. Another person is missing.

Streets were flooded in several cities in the southeastern EU country, Greek media reported. There was a power outage on the island of Corfu, causing problems in operating the airport there. On the Sporades islands of Skiathos, Skopelos and Alonissos, there was lightning and thunder overnight, sometimes every second, and in Elis, west of the Peloponnese, hail destroyed parts of the upcoming olive harvest.

The weather, which has been unusually rainy and stormy for the year, is expected to worsen locally through Tuesday and Thursday, forecasters at state weather service Meteo warned. Central Greece and the Peloponnese are particularly affected.

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Driving is prohibited in many places. Greek Civil Defense sent a warning SMS to residents of Volos and Skiathos on Tuesday afternoon. Heavy rains lashed the area on Tuesday night, causing cars to be washed away.

In Larissa and Volos, 12,000 lightning strikes were counted within two hours on Tuesday night, “Du Proto Thima” newspaper reported, citing the fire brigade. A fire department spokeswoman confirmed that one person died and another was missing when a wall collapsed under the water.

Meteorologist on rain in southern Europe: “It’s very intense”

The storms that hit Greece, Turkey and Spain over the weekend were unusual, according to experts. “Within two to three days, some parts of Germany have a year-round rainfall,” said Felix Dietz, a meteorologist at the German Weather Service (DWD), the German press agency. “The situation in the Ahr Valley is similar to what it was in 2021, only with many times the rainfall.”

But what causes the heavy rainfall? “It’s a random interaction of many factors,” Deitch explains. There is currently a tense general weather pattern in Europe known as Omega weather. Accordingly, there is a pronounced high-pressure area over Germany, around which air flows. “Low pressure areas are forming on the southwest and southeast edges of this high pressure area. These now meet Spain and Greece and are very stable there” – so they stay longer.

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Combined with very humid, warm and unstable air, this leads to long periods of heavy rain accompanied by thunderstorms. In addition, this link meets the mountains that force rain. “The amount of rainfall that we know is statistically very rare. It’s really extreme.”

A link to climate change cannot be named to a single event, but it is clear that warmer air and higher water temperatures in the Mediterranean are leading to more water evaporation. This water is re-rained elsewhere. In general, man-made climate change often leads to extreme weather events.

While the storm will indeed spoil some tourists’ holidays, many Greeks are happy about “Daniel”: thanks to heavy rains, for the first time in months there is no risk of wildfires in most parts of the country.