Saturday 21 January 2017

"Ariadne" the snowstorm!

Outside it is sunny with clear skies and rather cold today! Nothing reminds us of the awful weather that hit our country just a couple of days ago. In fact sometime between 6th and 14th January a low barometric system coming from Siberia hit Greece. The Greek meteorologists who had earlier taken the decision to name various weather phenomena in 2017 with Greek names called it "Ariadne"
So "Ariadne" will really be very difficult to be forgotten!
Not only because it was the first weather phenomenon that took a name in Greece but mainly because it caused the worst damage at least of the last 50 years and more.
Specifically for my city it snowed for three days which is so rare here. We hadn't seen so much snow since 1988.
But the worst was not the snow. It was the low temperatures. In the city it reached -10 degrees C with a feeling of -20 which is really unusual. In fact it hadn't happened to be so bitterly cold since 1963!
The moment it started snowing and it was blowing hard too I went out in the balcony and took photos with the macro lens hubby bought for our mobiles! That's a really great gadget and although I am against buying gadgets this one is perfect.And not expensive at all.
Since I take photos with my mobile and not with a camera it is great to be able to take macro photos too. 
And the most amazing was the coincidence of having a little new macro lens and snow! And here is what I managed to do, take photos of snowflakes!
I admit I was overwhelmed! Something I had seen Margie of Resurrection Fern do and now I managed too!





It started snowing at 11 in the morning on Tuesday 10th and 10 minutes later....


 half an hour later....
 I couldn't take photos of any more snowflakes as the snow came in bigger quantities.
 An hour later...
 cars couldn't pass.
 So we decided to go the sea front and play with the snow!
 Wow! I hadn't seen the seafront like that ever!


 Barca loved it!

 We all loved it!
 Very soon the streets were impossible to drive through and there was a huge traffic jam at the bigger avenues. Buses and public transport ceased and people walked home.
 The seafront was a huge white avenue.
 My son didn't at first want to come walk at the seafront but he soon decided it was a chance maybe of a lifetime. I guess he will always remember January snow of 2017 like I still remember the December 1988.


 There were ships down there in the sea but we could only hear their horns; we couldn't see them.

 That night the light was so much brighter in our street because of the snow!
 It was everywhere even in our balcony so I took some more photos trying to capture the snowflakes.


 See the different shape here?




 Soon the cold became the problem.Everything froze, water, snow, pipes, and they started breaking. People didn't have heating, or water.At some places they didn't have both for a week and lots of damage at appliances and pipes. We were lucky we simply didn't have hot water for a couple of days.
We were also lucky because we didn't have school as schools were closed everywhere.Our headmaster didn't ask us to reach our school, there was no reason anyway.So I spent one more week of holidays!
Look how much snow there was at the school yard (photos of our headmaster)

A couple of days later when the sun came out the snow started melting. We walked the seafront again to take a couple of photos with the sun of the beauty all around us.














So although lots of people were happy with the snow at first it caused more trouble as the city wasn't ready for it.
But it will definitely be a time to remember. "Ariadne" was both beautiful and hard!
(Christmas ornament by my Scottish friend Gabrielle)

23 comments:

Purple Pixie Dust said...

Glad you are okay. Yes, the snow if lovely but it can cause problems if you don't usually have it. Loved all the photo's. Big hugs my friend. Take care. Love your ornament.

butterfly said...


You did get some pretty snow I saw it on TV.
Lovely photos .

eleanna said...

Really beautiful photos Ariadne, especially the ones with macro lens. They are so clear & sooooo close! I 'm glad that you had great time, unfortunately "Ariadne" caused me a lot of problems. I hope you are the only "Ariadne" I will see again!

twinpeakprimitives said...

It seems, instaed of global warming, we've stepped into a mini Ice Age!!!

Snow flakes are indeed miracles ♥♥♥

All the best
Nurdan

Kaisievic said...

Amazing photos, thank you for sharing and stay warm!

Χριστίνα Πεταλωτή said...

Ενδέχεται να είμαι και η μοναδική στην πόλη που δεν έβγαλε ούτε μία φωτογραφία και δεν έπιασα ούτε μία σταλίτσα χιόνι! Ανοχή στο κρύο μηδέν.
:) Καλή Κυριακή Αριάδνη!!!!

Marie-Anne said...

Very nice photos, Ariadne!!! And those macro ones are gorgeous!!!
We did not have so much snow here...I wish we had some more! Next year maybe?!!!
I wish you a lovely Sunday!

Barb said...

Your snowflake photos are just amazing. It looks like your family had fun down by the sea. That kind of weather is difficult for cities that are not used to it. I loved all the photos!

Bea said...

Excellent pictures. Snow and cold can be real problems if you aren't used to them. I hope everything is back to normal now.

Poppy said...

'Ariadne' really made a grand entrance, didn't she? Your macros are magnificent, my friend; I love snowflakes, they're so pretty!!

Your family selfie is sweet, too. Hope you guys got some hot chocolate soon after that seafront stroll!

Hugs,
Poppy

riitta k said...

Omg! The climate phenomenons are so odd these days! Terrible for you. We have good warming in the houses and cars have winter tyres... Glad you are safe!

Tiffstitch said...

Nice macros, and can't believe the weather.. wow.

Kirsty Vittetoe said...

Cool shots from outside Ariadne, good to see you here!

Ο κόσμος της Ράνιας said...

Έχει μία ιδιαίτερη μαγεία το χιόνι, αρκεί να μην κάνει καταστροφές.... οι φωτογραφίες σου εκπληκτικές !!!!!

Astrids dragon said...

You've had more snow than we've gotten so far! It makes everything look lovely, you took great photos.

Judy Cooper Textile Artist said...

I don't usually associate snow with Greece! Wow! We have lots of snow at the moment but that is to be expected in St. John's, NL, Canada as our very large island province is in the middle of the north Atlantic ocean.
Hope you get warmer weather soon.

zina said...

τις ειχα δει τις φωτογραφίες στου fcb και ξετρελάθηκα! απλά υπέροχες :)

Aritha V. said...

O, you have had snow too. Very nice photos. Well done. Love to see them all. The macros are wonderful. How nice are this Crystals :-)

FlashinScissors said...

Gosh, snow in Greece, that's amazing!
Great photos, especially liked to see the seafront in the snow!
Hope you kept nice and warm, and trust it has all gone now.
Barbara x

Ros Crawford said...

I have been watching your weather on the news and found it so unbelievable! Though I have visited Greece many times I once went to Athens (years ago) and it was so hot I couldn't cope! So I found it really hard to comprehend snow there! And fancy it all being named after you haha! Amazing photos ... What a clever gadget! I've never heard of it. Thanks so much for sharing with us at OBW!! Stay safe!

Kerry said...

Beautiful photos! Hope the snow has disappeared, but I am sure you will always remember it! Take care and here is hoping the warm weather will return soon. I live in SW Ontario and this winter we have had barely any snow but it has been very damp and cloudy. Take care!

Sheryl said...

Gosh what awful and unusual weather for Greece, Spain too had alerts all last week for very low temps and snow, but we didn´t see a flake here on the north coast while the south even had smatterings of snow on the beaches.??? Great photos Ariadne.

Christina(ArtDecorationCrafting) said...

Μπορεί να είμαι παιδί του καλοκαιριού αλλά πρέπει να παραδεχτώ πως το χιόνι που μας φέρνει ο χειμώνας φτιάχνει υπέροχες εικόνες. Υπέροχες και οι φωτογραφίες σου Αριάδνη. Καλό μήνα :)

https://artdecorationcrafting.blogspot.gr/