Thursday 22 September 2011

A tale of two weathers...

When we returned to Lefkas the weather was extremely hot with the temperatures in the mid to high 30's consistently day after day (and night after night).  This had apparently been the case for a large part of the summer.  It eventually broke on Monday evening with loud and prolonged thunder storms which rattled around the mountains like some ancient cannon battle happening all around.
Spectacular sheet lightening illuminating the entire cloud base every few seconds, and then came the rain!



We had driving rain which pierced all our defences on the house, we got a big puddle on the kitchen floor which had come from the rain driving through the shutters past the windows themselves and onto the floor, unbelievable!  We battened down the hatches and brought anything which was vulnerable into the house so it would not be damaged and snuggled down for a cooler night in prospect.  The Thunder continued overnight so sleeping wasn't really an option given the volume of all the crashes but things seemed a bit better by Tuesday morning although heavy thundery showers continued most of the day and there was so much static in the air it was making my hair stand on end.  Unfortunately the roller shutter canopy over next doors balcony didn't survive the night and as of today, Thursday, it's been disassembled and back to the suppliers for repair.

In the early evening we watched a fantastic cloud formation roll up the valley towards us at alarming speed.  The nearest thing we can compare it too was the seen from "Wizard of Oz" where Dorothy is clicking her heels together.  Light grey clouds zooming under a dark grey canopy at silly speeds.  We didn't realise at the time but this was the storm which was just about due to hit Vliho bay just down the coast from us.

Here is a link to some video footage taken of the storm if you have not already seen it:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSB8zE-guFs&feature=share

It seems things are not quite as bad as originally reported and that there was only one fatality, a French Yachtsman, our thoughts and hopes are currently for his wife and family.  There are some much better pictures of the devastation wrought by the storm on the Ionian magazines web site at:- http://www.theionian.com/

Anyway needless to say the the weather has now settled into a lovely spell of 25 degree days and 20 degree nights so we are all sleeping much better now.  We have not eaten out much since we returned home as Tavernas are still full of tourists and you don't really feel like eating much when it's really hot but now that the weather has changed we are going out tonight with Debbie & Jeremy for a bite and catch up on all the latest gossip to hit the island (no doubt the great storm of September 2011 will be it!).

1 comment:

  1. Wow Waddy! - looked pretty spectacular on the Utube link... had a lot of wind in East Yorkshire last week - so bad that blowing dust and sand became a hazard. The nights have really pulled in and the temperature has dropped in the evenings, so much so that the underfloor heating is on and as usual the bloody doors are open during the day to let some of the heat out - but nice and toasty in the evenings. That's the only drawback, once you get the Yorkshire Stone floor warm it holds the heat and delivers warmth 24 hours a day.. Not complaining in any way shape or form.

    Cooking an Indian for 7 on Saturday evening - think I'll try the 'jumpdyke Tikka Jalfrezi' again....

    Take Care

    Paul

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