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Cold front blankets much of Greece with snow; major highway closes, power outages reported

The most severe winter storm of the season blanketed much of the Greek mainland and several islands of several feet of fresh snow on Tuesday, causing widespread problems in terms of power and water outages and closed highways.

Power outages were mostly the result of felled trees.

The greater Athens area experienced the biggest snowfall since 2004, with the storm, named ” Medea”, bringing the Greek capital, which is already reeling from a pandemic “lockdown”, to a standstill.

According to the National Observatory in Athens, which operates the meteo.gr system of meteorological stations, the lowest temperature recorded over the past 24-hour period was -19.9C, recorded at the Mesovouno site in the northwest prefecture of Kozani.

At the same time, the strongest wind gust clocked in at 118 kilometers per hour, recorded at the Paximada site, near the town of Karystos, on the southern tip of Evia island – the windiest spot in Greece.