Omega

September 1st we had a few spits of rain and we all talked about the end of August and the end of summer.  The cinema changed its programme expecting rain on their debut of Oppenheimer.  That didn't come to anything.

On Monday the heavens opened up and there's still a light pitter-patter now and again on Thursday night.

I think we can realistically talk about the end of summer and a change of seasons though I'm sure we have many more hot days to come. 

England's heatwave and Greeces storm are all part of an Omega block.  High pressure, which brings warm weather, becomes sandwiched between 2 low pressure systems.  It forms a shape like the Greek letter Omega.

The storm has been named Daniel, a name agreed upon by Greece, Cyprus and Israel.  It's going to continue on down to them once it's finished with us.  Get ready Yael!

I googled Daniel and discovered it has been used for 8 tropical cyclones since 1978, most of them centred around Hawaii.  So many names available. Why reuse this one?

The storm skirted around Poros but we did get plenty of torrential rain. The olive trees drank it all up.  The olive harvest starts in 2 months.  A very small harvest has been predicted this year because of the extreme heat and the price of a can of olive oil (17 litres) has already jumped from 60 euros to 120-150 euros.

Our garden got a very good watering, the car got a good wash and the dusty gritty road outside has had all it's rubble washed down to the fields below.  This weekend is predicted to be warm and sunny.  I expect the plants that are left will be growing inches overnight.  

 

Our rain gauge

  This bowl has filled up and overflowed many times over the last few days.  

Thank goodness we had no drips at all in the house.  In the last storm I was woken by drops of water on my face.  It's funny how leaks come and go.  It never seems to leak in the same place twice and now with so much heavy rain there were no leaks.

However.  Flooding further north has destroyed bridges and roads, turned villages into lakes and filled vast areas with metres of mud.  Many hundreds of people are trapped in their homes. 

Around here our main road out to Epidavros, Athens and beyond has been closed by falling rocks.  'They' estimate that it will take 5 months to clean up and reopen.  That means 5 months of winding up narrow mountain roads through small villages  to get out of the area.