In depth analysis of the Athens Riviera climate and palm potential

[southathens]

At this altitude you are prone to register lower Ts than the coastal areas of the Athens Riviera

[Phoenikakias]

Only problem is that in average temps coastal areas after Varkiza such as Lagonissi and Thymari-Katafygi, to name few,  are even colder than my place. And they are at sea level. How do you explain this?

[southathens]

22 hours ago, Phoenikakias said:

Only problem is that in average temps coastal areas after Varkiza such as Lagonissi and Thymari-Katafygi, to name few,  are even colder than my place. And they are at sea level. How do you explain this?

Annually speaking? Yes it might be true since less UHI and much lower summer maxes compared to more urban Athens. This has a serious impact on avg annual Ts

Edited January 26, 2024 by Manos33

[southathens]

Around 107 tropical nights per year in Downtown Athens for the period 1991-2020. This must be the highest in mainland Europe. The highest I can find in Iberia is 93 tropical nights per year in Cadiz.

Edited January 28, 2024 by Manos33

[southathens]

On 12/31/2023 at 1:39 PM, Manos33 said:

And here is a view of the Monemvasia WMO station.

Perfect set up as per WMO standards since the station is located on the ground overlooking the sea. 

Easily the area with the mildest winders in mainland Greece. Also probably one of the few locations in mainland Greece which straddles the 11a hardiness zone. Probably also the extreme SW tip of Peloponnese might also be 11a. It's a pity we don't have a station over there!

 

And below the updated climate data for Monemvasia

 

Btw one more interesting fact about Monemvasia is that on the 27th of June 2007 it registered a minimum T of 35.9C which makes it the record high minimum temperature both in mainland Greece and mainland Europe!

 

 

[southathens]

Also Monemvasia records 133 tropical nights per year...

Astonishing considering we are talking about mainland Europe here and that Tenerife is also around 130 tropical nights per year..

Monemvasia must be the record holder for highest number of tropical nights in mainland Europe. The Iberian peninsula barely manages 93 tropical nights.

Edited January 29, 2024 by Manos33

[Phoenikakias]

On 1/26/2024 at 7:54 PM, Manos33 said:

Annually speaking? Yes it might be true since less UHI and much lower summer maxes compared to more urban Athens. This has a serious impact on avg annual Ts

Manos, in the weather application of my smart phone appear two locations in Athens with some considerable T difference. Do you happen to know which are those locations?

[southathens]

probably Anavysos NOA is one of them

https://penteli.meteo.gr/stations/anavyssos/

[Phoenikakias]

54 minutes ago, Manos33 said:

probably Anavysos NOA is one of them

https://penteli.meteo.gr/stations/anavyssos/

No, Anavyssos is clearly a third station. For Athens there are clearly another two stations. Look carefully at the posted picture, it is a screenshot of application displaying 3 distinct T actual values according to a particular location.

[southathens]

56 minutes ago, Phoenikakias said:

No, Anavyssos is clearly a third station. For Athens there are clearly another two stations. Look carefully at the posted picture, it is a screenshot of application displaying 3 distinct T actual values according to a particular location.

This is random. I mean I have no idea what application you are using and even so these are not to be taken seriously.

Please visit NOA Attica live map to see exact conditions from official WMO stations

https://www.meteo.gr/attica/

We are currently experiencing the coldest day so far during 2023-2024 winter...

[Phoenikakias]

3 hours ago, Manos33 said:

This is random. I mean I have no idea what application you are using and even so these are not to be taken seriously.

Please visit NOA Attica live map to see exact conditions from official WMO stations

https://www.meteo.gr/attica/

We are currently experiencing the coldest day so far during 2023-2024 winter...

Yet application data seem pretty accurate, when I compare them with car's thermometer.

[southathens]

Yeah car Ts not really reliable 

[southathens]

On 1/29/2024 at 2:40 AM, Manos33 said:

 

Btw one more interesting fact about Monemvasia is that on the 27th of June 2007 it registered a minimum T of 35.9C which makes it the record high minimum temperature both in mainland Greece and mainland Europe!

 

 

😂

 

[southathens]

Here is a 17 year POR comparison between the official Stevenson Screen station in Downtown Athens and the nearby Davis fan aspirated pro plus 

Immediately two major takeaways:

1) Trust the minimum Ts of rooftop Davis fan aspirated stations. They are actually lower year round by about 0.2C despite it being a rooftop station. 

2) Look at how the Davis fan aspirated station significantly underestimates max Ts. Especially during the two hottest months we see a -1.1C T difference when compared to the Stevenson Screen data.  That's obviously due to the mechanical aspiration. 

Mind you that this is what we see in almost EVERY other location we have run the past 19 years comparisons between our Davis fan aspirated station network (600+) and the nearby Stevenson Screen stations here in Greece.

Basically it goes to show how extremely accurate Davis fan aspirated stations are. They are probably the best in world beating in terms of accuracy the traditional Stevenson Screen ones. 

[Aceraceae]

Not only that, it's located at 'half' the elevation at 50 meters vs 100 meters amsl, still in downtown location, and still is cooler in all regards. For such sunny locations and with low wind the fan makes a big difference. Perhaps in northern Europe the distinction is less clear. 

[southathens]

23 hours ago, Aceraceae said:

Not only that, it's located at 'half' the elevation at 50 meters vs 100 meters amsl, still in downtown location, and still is cooler in all regards. For such sunny locations and with low wind the fan makes a big difference. Perhaps in northern Europe the distinction is less clear. 

Yes, especially in hot areas during the summer fan aspirated stations are a silver bullet to accurate readings. 

[southathens]

The new NOA met station in the Athens Riviera located in Agios Kosmas next to Hellenikon old AP shows pretty strong foehn winds effect with the meltemi winds. 

Two days in the row it recorded the second highest T in Attica with 37.7C

Btw 10 days ago with the big heatwave in Greece Crete recorded 44.5C

Its turning out to be a very hot summer in Greece and tropical cultivations might suffer.

 

 

[southathens]

 

[southathens]

 

[southathens]

A truly hellish summer for Greece

Gavalou and Serres recorded in July 14 consecutive days of T's over 40.0C while Athens recorded 12 consecutive nights of minimum Ts over 30.0C 

 

[southathens]

Serres has now overtaken Cordoba JJA mean max temperature record and the heat is projected to continue throughout August...

 

[southathens]

 

[southathens]

 

[southathens]

@Phoenikakias do you have more Ts from your area during the latest cold snap in the Athens Riviera?

[Phoenikakias]

As you may remember, I have only a cheap weather station, that can only save in memory daily highs and lows and every time one day ends and another starts, it begins again  recording max and min erasing previous memory. So I installed a cheap wi-fi camera focusing on the screen of the monitor. This way  I am able to watch in real time actual monitoring of the weather station.  And I remained awake all night long from Saturday to Sunday. Meanwhile after each time I had been checking my weather station I I had been  checking afterwards two weather stations connected to WU, one in Koropi (Agia Marina) and another in Lagonissi (Kalyvia).  The Lagonissi station is with all probability a.s l. and at about equal distance from the coast, the one in Koropi is installed further inland. My own is at 132 m altitude and roughly 200 m from the coast. The Lagonissi station had been displaying constantly 1 degree lower T than my own, while the one in Koropi kept pace with mine. Same values with the last two stations had been displaying also the station in Vari. The station in Saronida had been displaying a bit higher values, not much though about half a degree. On Friday evening I was there and observed that in same area T was constantly half a degree higher near sea level than in my garden (132 m altitude)

[southathens]

On 2/26/2025 at 3:29 PM, Phoenikakias said:

As you may remember, I have only a cheap weather station, that can only save in memory daily highs and lows and every time one day ends and another starts, it begins again  recording max and min erasing previous memory. So I installed a cheap wi-fi camera focusing on the screen of the monitor. This way  I am able to watch in real time actual monitoring of the weather station.  And I remained awake all night long from Saturday to Sunday. Meanwhile after each time I had been checking my weather station I I had been  checking afterwards two weather stations connected to WU, one in Koropi (Agia Marina) and another in Lagonissi (Kalyvia).  The Lagonissi station is with all probability a.s l. and at about equal distance from the coast, the one in Koropi is installed further inland. My own is at 132 m altitude and roughly 200 m from the coast. The Lagonissi station had been displaying constantly 1 degree lower T than my own, while the one in Koropi kept pace with mine. Same values with the last two stations had been displaying also the station in Vari. The station in Saronida had been displaying a bit higher values, not much though about half a degree. On Friday evening I was there and observed that in same area T was constantly half a degree higher near sea level than in my garden (132 m altitude)

Thanks for the info. 

Just bear in mind that the vast majority of WU stations are mostly junk stations with very few exceptions. Check your T's against Davis stations always. Either through NOA or through WeatherLink (which has loads of private Davis stations around Attica). The Davis Lagonisi station is consistently the warmest in terms of means in all of the Athens Riviera during the winter. It's a pity  it was offline during the recent cold snap.

Here its climate normals which are strikingly warm during the winter. This due to its location at an non inversion area. It is also the driest station in mainland Greece (alongside Anavyssos NOA) and one of the driest in continental Europe. Its been functional the past 13 years!

 

[Phoenikakias]

On 2/28/2025 at 12:49 AM, southathens said:

Thanks for the info. 

Just bear in mind that the vast majority of WU stations are mostly junk stations with very few exceptions. Check your T's against Davis stations always. Either through NOA or through WeatherLink (which has loads of private Davis stations around Attica). The Davis Lagonisi station is consistently the warmest in terms of means in all of the Athens Riviera during the winter. It's a pity  it was offline during the recent cold snap.

Here its climate normals which are strikingly warm during the winter. This due to its location at an non inversion area. It is also the driest station in mainland Greece (alongside Anavyssos NOA) and one of the driest in continental Europe. Its been functional the past 13 years!

 

I can not detect loads of private weather station in Attica via WeatherLink, just a handful! Instead I discovered in AWEKAS a private weather station in Ano Voula at about 60 m altitude, that is about half the altitude of my garden, which lies to the south of the Metropolitan area. Here is the comparison, which I find it very interesting. Note please that rather near to this weather station there is a private garden, where many tropical fruits are cultivated. First the data from this weather station.

And now the date at same time in my garden

[southathens]

New national March record for Greece with 34.9C in Crete

https://x.com/FiladelfeiaHeat/status/1901252380391289162

[southathens]

More impressive was the the 31.7C European March night time record in Falasarna, Crete.

A direct result of the hot air masses from N.Africa and the extremely hot fohn winds coming from the mountains of Crete.

 

[southathens]

On 3/14/2025 at 4:51 PM, Phoenikakias said:

I can not detect loads of private weather station in Attica via WeatherLink, just a handful! Instead I discovered in AWEKAS a private weather station in Ano Voula at about 60 m altitude, that is about half the altitude of my garden, which lies to the south of the Metropolitan area. Here is the comparison, which I find it very interesting.

 

 

I had a look. Hmmm in my experience I would not read too much into these readings. Unfortunately as I have discussed previously if we are not talking about a Davis station then we need to use these reading as a rough guide. However seeing that this is a Bresser station I would say the Ts would not be that biased as other truly junk stations we see in WU, AWEKAS etc. In fact there are some Bresser stations throughout Greece patented by their owners with fan aspiration. These readings would probably be pretty close to Davis stations. 

[Phoenikakias]

5 minutes ago, southathens said:

 

I had a look. Hmmm in my experience I would not read too much into these readings. Unfortunately as I have discussed previously if we are not talking about a Davis station then we need to use these reading as a rough guide. However seeing that this is a Bresser station I would say the Ts would not be that biased as other truly junk stations we see in WU, AWEKAS etc. In fact there are some Bresser stations throughout Greece patented by their owners with fan aspiration. These readings would probably be pretty close to Davis stations. 

In what sense, does the lack of fan aspiration influence the min values during night?

[southathens]

2 minutes ago, Phoenikakias said:

In what sense, does the lack of fan aspiration influence the min values during night?

No if we are talking strictly min Ts then a Bresser station would be relatively ok provided it is properly installed at a correct height away from concrete structures, ideally on the grass. 

I am talking overall T quality. Fan aspiration is particularly important when we are talking max Ts but also occasionally when it comes to night min Ts with calm synoptic conditions (no air, overcast etc).

[Phoenikakias]

11 minutes ago, southathens said:

More impressive was the the 31.7C European March night time record in Falasarna, Crete.

A direct result of the hot air masses from N.Africa and the extremely hot fohn winds coming from the mountains of Crete.

 

For me as grower, max value during a day is only of minor interest, because this value could have been recorded only for some minutes. Much more important, way much more, is the daily average, or like other growes before me had already put it regarding tropical plants, the GrUD's (Growth Units per Day). Let us assume that a tropical plant needs 30C for optimal growth that day and night are equal in duration all year round. Meaning further that the ideal number of GrUD's for a year is 30 x 12 x 365= 131.400 How many GrUD's have Chania, or Rhodos or any other warm place in the Greek speaking region within a year? This matters really a grower!

[southathens]

25 minutes ago, Phoenikakias said:

For me as grower, max value during a day is only of minor interest, because this value could have been recorded only for some minutes. Much more important, way much more, is the daily average, or like other growes before me had already put it regarding tropical plants, the GrUD's (Growth Units per Day). Let us assume that a tropical plant needs 30C for optimal growth that day and night are equal in duration all year round. Meaning further that the ideal number of GrUD's for a year is 30 x 12 x 365= 131.400 How many GrUD's have Chania, or Rhodos or any other warm place in the Greek speaking region within a year? This matters really a grower!

I understand your take. Personally I have no idea what GrUD is, I just read it from you now. Don't forget I am not well versed in cultivation and growing plants. I am more experienced in correct temperature observations, optimal weather stations and accuracy of readings.

Though I am not completely sure if max Ts are irrelevant to tropical fruit cultivation in Greece. I mean we do get some brutal summer Ts. Especially in Athens. Don't forget last summer. Locally in the mainland we had over 38.0C mean max Ts for 92 days! For the entire summer (June 1st to August 31st). That is crazy for Greece and even Andalusia has barely made that happen once or twice in the past (and with bullshit/crap fanless stations- not like the ones that we have in Greece from NOA). Tropical plants throughout Greece would surely suffer in these conditions.

Now since average Ts are of such importance when it comes to cultivation as you mention then yes we need to go back to my ''never ending narrative'' of Davis stations. They would be the golden standard for average Ts. All other stations would highly bias average Ts. 

[southathens]

At 2.2C mean of ab. minimums Nea Smyrni NOA station currently the mildest area in South Athens just off the Athens Riviera at 10b zone.