Expats In Greece Experience Extreme Weather Phenomena

As reports continue to come in about worldwide extreme weather phenomena, are expats in Greece wondering if their choice of climate should be reconsidered?

Awareness of the fact of climate change is now growing as extreme weather reports coincide with scary analyses of melting polar ice, soggy permafrost and other previously unreported manifestations of climate instability. Amongst recent headlines were massive flash floods due to hailstorms in Spain, record-breaking temperatures across Europe, Hurricane Dorian’s destruction of much of the Bahamas and devastating droughts in other world regions. Greece is now getting in the act by reporting extreme weather, thousands of thunderbolts and soaring temperatures.

One of the most-mentioned reasons for leaving the UK is its miserable weather’s effect on emotional and physical health, especially in the elderly. Many UK retirees headed to Greece, often to the seaside town they’d visited many times on holiday, giving the comfortable climate a major reason for their choice. Sunny and hot in summer and resembling late autumn in the UK during the winter, it seems to suit UK expats very well although the country still isn’t a major retiree destination such as is Spain. This year, however, Greece proved it’s not immune to extreme weather phenomena.

A recent report from the Greek National Weather Observatory’s meteorological service identified this summer as one of the most unusual on record, citing temperatures as high as 41.9 degrees, winds as strong as 132 kilometres per hour and massive storms holding thousands of lightning bolts as well as damaging winds. One dangerous ‘super cell’ storm centred on Halkidiki, causing destruction and devastation, and a total of 68,000 lightening bolts were recorded. The unstable weather isn’t helping expat residents, especially those in Greece’s famed island destinations as many amenities need to be shipped from the mainland.

To make matters worse, Greece’s showing in the latest Expat Insider survey revealed many expat residents are concerned about their financial situations and not best pleased with their working lives. Lurking at number 57 out of the 64 destinations surveyed, Greece’s expat population seems to still find it easy to make friends, but its last-but-one place in the survey’s Working Abroad category seems to indicate the majority would rather be elsewhere and are perhaps planning to move on.