A Note on the Weather

A lot of people have asked us what the weather here in Athens is like. Several have assumed we are whiling away the days sunning ourselves at outdoor cafes. Well, the truth is....yes and no. It was quite cold when we arrived in mid-February, actually. Luckily I had checked the forecast and brought several sweaters and a coat. Tim brought several sweaters but no coat (he ended up buying one here on a great sale, luckily). Some days last month the thermometer did not get out of the 40s (that's farenheit, in case you were wondering), and the lows dipped into the high 30s. Still, compared to Boston, we've been pretty happy. But Athens just seems like a city built for heat. All of the empty outdoor chairs and tables in the squares, at the tavernas seemed rather lonely.

But it is now March, and they say Spring comes soon. Last weekend was our first taste of what it might be like when the weather really starts to warm up. There were a couple of gloriously sunny days in the 60s, and we enjoyed a long Sunday lunch sitting outside in the sun at a taverna (while the East Coast was being pummeled with snow, I hear).

It's cooled off again, and this morning I woke up and had to do a double-take at my little Yahoo! weather widget, which I've set to Athens. The little image for the current weather was something I had never seen before:


I ask you, does that not look like a little fingerprint?? How could the image for the weather be a a black smudge???

I clicked further to receive more detail on the current conditions, and was greeted with a picture of the sun being enveloped by a very unpleasant looking cloud of brown smoke: "DUST" the detailed report said. I have been outside a few times today, and indeed the air is very "dusty". It looks hazy, but more than that the air seems to be filled with granular particles. (I tried my best to breathe as little as possible of it in.) Athens is not a very clean city, and it is quite traffic-congested (I will expand on the topic of traffic later, for sure). Although I do hear it is much better now than it was 10 years ago, due to the great Olympics clean-up effort.

Luckily, the forecast calls for this to pass tomorrow, and for sun and warmth ahead.

I don't think Tim will get too much wear out of his new coat!