Ballos takes cue from Athena to bring more storms
Hot on the heels of a wet weather system dubbed Athena that lashed the fire-scarred island of Evia and other parts of Greece over the weekend, a new system named after a feisty island folk dance is expected to sweep into the country on Thursday.
Ballos, according to an urgent bulletin published the National Meteorological Service (EMY) on Tuesday, will bring strong downpours and storms, gale-force winds at sea and a drop in temperatures, particularly on the mainland.
Like Athena – which was on its way out on Tuesday with scattered storms in the eastern mainland before heading to the islands of the Aegean – Ballos will come in from the west-northwest on Thursday, hitting the islands of the Ionian, the western mainland and Macedonia first.
It will spread eastwards on Friday and Saturday, taking its storms and showers to most other parts of the country, along with southerly winds that will reach speeds as high as 9 Beaufort in the southern Aegean.
In northern Greece, meanwhile, Ballos is expected to plunge temperatures by as much as 7 degrees Celsius lower.
