/

Brief cold snap beckons

1517 views
1 min read

Winter will pay Cyprus a short visit after the island had one of its driest and warmest Decembers.

The Met Office reported the coldest night of this winter, as temperatures on Monday dropped to 1.6 degrees Celsius in Nicosia, oddly lower than the mountains, which saw a minimum temperature of 2.1°C.

Cyprus is heading for wintery scenery, triggered by two low-pressure weather systems heading to the Eastern part of the Mediterranean from Greece and Italy.

Temperatures will begin to drop on Tuesday night, with the chance of local showers and some snow on the highest mountains.

Maximum day temperatures on Tuesday were warmer than the seasonal 15°C, as they reached 20°C.

On Wednesday, a low-pressure weather system moving from Greece towards the Aegean reaches its peak.

The island will be affected by a pre-frontal trough of the system, bringing rain to the southwestern half of the island.

Temperatures will still be higher than the average for the season, reaching a maximum of 17°C inland and the coast and 4°C on the highest mountains.

The highest mountains will get some snow after midnight on Wednesday.

By Thursday, the low-pressure weather system will die out but continue to push temperatures down to 15°C inland and 17°C on the coasts, and 1 on the highest mountains.

Moving from Italy, a second low-pressure weather system will affect the island on Friday as the first system fades.

More rain is expected over the weekend, with temperatures dropping to 13°C on Saturday and Sunday, 2 degrees below the seasonal average of 15°C.

December was the third driest month in the past decade, said the Met Office.

Talking to state radio CyBC, Director of the Meteorology department Kleanthis Nicolaides said the water flow to the dams in December was extremely limited.

“Only 2.922 million cubic metres of water was collected last month, compared with 11.9 million cubic metres in December 2021,” he said.

This ranks the month as the third driest in the last ten years, when the driest December was that of 2017, with only 0.88 million cubic metres of water collected.

December was the 13th driest since 1901.

Nicolaides said rainfall is expected to stay the same in the coming months.

The seasonal forecast indicates that January, February, and March will be relatively warm months with below-normal rainfall.