A cold snap has severe weather conditions across Greece delivering heavy snow, freezing temperatures, and even a tornado.

The country’s capital, Athens, and many of the Aegean islands have been impacted with government officials asking people to only venture outside for essential purposes.

Although snow is often seen in northern Greece at higher altitudes, snowfall across the Aegean islands is much rarer but follows a 2021 snowstorm which resulted in widespread loss of power and disruption to daily life.

As snow hit Athens traffic soon began to build while heated refuge sites have been opened with many homes in the capital unsuited to cold temperatures.

Trains, buses, and ferry connections were all interrupted while some Covid vaccination sites closed for the day, and schools will remain closed until tomorrow.

Freezing temperatures are likely to persist into Wednesday with some pockets of snow remaining on Tuesday.

Elsewhere, snowfall continues to hit Turkey where winter conditions have held since last Tuesday.

The severe weather has resulted in widespread disruption to travel by a bus accident in the metropolis of Istanbul over the weekend resulting in three deaths and at least 18 injured.

While much of last week’s snow was located in Turkey’s eastern regions, we now see heavy snowfall impacting central areas where temperatures will also drop to a low of -9C with snow Tuesday morning and -16C elsewhere but dry.