Weather service issues upgraded warning for 'Bettina', with high winds, steep temperature drops

An emergency weather warning for the weekend was upgraded on Saturday noon from 'worsening weather' to 'dangerous weather phenomena', as the storm 'Bettina' is moving from the Adriatic Sea toward Greece, raising wind velocity to 9 and locally to 10 on the Beaufort scale, the National Meteorological Service (EMY) said.

Specifically, EMY said that strong winds will affect nearly all of Greece, while several regions - western and northern Greece, and eastern and southern islands - will experience torrential rain and thunderstorms as of Saturday night, with the rest of Greece experiencing milder phenomena overnight to Sunday. Snowfall on higher elevations on the mainland will be registered (500-700 meters above sea level), while some snowfall will also occur at lower elevations. The regions that will be affected include Thrace, Macedonia, and temperorarily Epirus, and snowfall will occur as of Saturday night to midday Sunday.

On Saturday night, temperatures will drop significantly: between 8 and 10 degrees Celsius in the Ionian region and the mainland, and by 4 to 6 degrees Celsius in all other areas.

Wind velocity is expected to drop as of Sunday afternoon.