Many streets in Athens were flooded
© AMNAMany streets in Athens were flooded during thunderstorms.
The short but intense spells of thunderstorms on Monday night to early Tuesday morning led to the flooding of major streets in and around Athens and Thessaloniki, and trees were uprooted in northern Greece.

No injuries have been reported thus far, but, in Ptolemaida in northern Greece and nearby villages, flooding in basements of homes led to additional firefighters being summoned to help from the regions of Epirus and West Macedonia. Since Monday night, these included a total of fifty firefighters with twenty trucks.

Water was pumped out in forty-five homes, basements, and professional spaces, and in a farming village about ten kilometers from Ptolemaida, the village of Ardassa saw over three inches of rainfall in nearly an hour. There were reports of flooded agricultural fields, irrigation channels, and overwhelmed drainage channels.




Further south, several mountain villages in the Trikala area had no electricity while in Kalabaka, firefighters were pumping water out of flooded basements.

Thunderstorms and hail were reported in Thessaloniki. Despite the brief storm, eastern Thessaloniki roads were flooded. The Fire Brigade was also called in to pump water out of basements and remove trees in Central and East Macedonia, including parts of the Chalkidiki peninsula.

In Athens, flooding temporarily shut down Pireos Street in both directions before police ordered its reopening.

Problems with flooding, however, were reported on the coastal Posidonos Avenue going toward Voula and on Vouliagmenis Avenue, also going toward Voula, with police shutting down sections of the major highways to traffic.

The rainfalls on Tuesday are part of a bad weather front forecast to last until Friday, August 26, 2022.

Meteorologists warn that more rainfalls are forecast for Wednesday, August 24th, mainly in the central and northern parts of the country and especially in Central and Eastern Macedonia, Thrace, the northern Aegean, and, possibly, the Sporades islands. Hailstorms are expected in the central and northern areas, Thrace, and the northeastern Aegean Sea.