Medicane to reach Greece on Thursday night

A Mediterranean hurricane heading towards Greece will reach the southern Ionian Sea on Thursday evening instead of Friday, the meteorological service (Meteo) of the Athens National Observatory said on Thursday.

The hurricane is expected to continue eastward, bringing torrential rain and gale force winds to southern Greece and specifically to the Peloponnese and Crete on Saturday morning, Meteo said.

It will then hit the region of Attica, the island of Evia and the Cyclades and on Sunday morning it will reach the islands of the eastern Aegean and possibly the Dodecanese.

Hurricanes of this type are called Medicanes and reportedly appear in the Mediterranean once or twice a year.

In Greece they are even more rare, however this will be the third year in a row that such a cyclone appears. Before 2016, the Greek weather service recorded a Medicane in 1995.

A video posted by Severe Weather Europe shows the Medicane moving from the central Mediterranean towards Greece and eventually to southwestern Turkey.

Meanwhile, high winds on Wednesday and Thursday halted ferry services linking the mainland to the islands.

The severe weather, dubbed “Xenophon” in Greece, brought lower temperatures and intense winds in the country.

Due to the low predictability on the development of “Xenophon”, Meteo said it will issue updated information.