The “Tilemachos” cold front that brought heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures to many areas of Greece, including Athens, will continue gripping the country on Wednesday, it was announced on Tuesday, according to ANA.
Traffic problems and interruptions in mass transit routes were the principal problems on Tuesday in the greater Athens area, as the season’s first snowfall – widely expected for at least 24 hours – materialized overnight.
The main north-south highway up to Thebes was opened by 9 a.m., after heavy snowfall cut off traffic hours earlier.
Districts beneath the mountains overlooking the Greek capital were the hardest hit, while most schools were ordered closed, including ones in the municipalities of Athens, where snowfall did not affect roadways.
Athens Traffic police has cut off traffic on the Penteli-Nea Makri road between the 414 military hospital and Agios Petros.
Furthermore, police banned vehicles weighing over 3.5 tons from circulating on the Athens-Lamia highway from Afidnes onwards; and on the Athens-Thiva highway from Mandra onwards, in the Thiva-bound direction.
In northern Greece, most of the schools will stay closed in order to avoid possible accidents, as will many schools in central Greece and the Peloponnese.
Meanwhile, police have taken measures and closed off vehicle access to many regional roads to prevent accidents.
Freezing temperatures prevailed in many parts of Greece on Tuesday, according to the meteo station of the National Observatory of Athens.
The thermometer in Nevrokopi (Drama region) recorded the lowest temperature (-21C) followed by Neos Kafkasos (Florina region) with -20.4C.
Extremely low temperatures were recorded in the city of Grevena (-19.9C), in the village of Vovousa (Ioannina region) -19.5C, in Mavrolithari (Fokida region) -19.3C, in the city of Florina -18.8C, in Ptolemaida -18.5C and in the village of Pertouli (Trikala region) -17.5C.
Very low temperatures were also recorded in Kozani -13C and -12C in Kastoria.
In the city of Thessaloniki the lowest recorded temperature was -04C while in the regions of eastern Macedonia and Thrace the thermometer showed -11C in the city of Drama and -09 in Orestiada.
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