Heavy rain and strong winds are forecast to sweep across Greece by the middle of this week, with widespread rainfall of 50-150mm expected, according to the Guardian’s weather tracker.
Forecast models point to the heaviest totals around the island of Skiathos. The downpours will be driven by a low-pressure system that is expected to deepen as it crosses the Adriatic and Ionian seas, then track eastwards into the Aegean Sea by midweek.
The system is being pushed southwards towards the Mediterranean by an area of high pressure that will build across northern and western Europe over the coming week.
Towards the end of the week the low will continue eastwards, bringing showers to parts of Crete, which was struck by severe flooding a week earlier. Those storms swept cars and trees into the sea.
The outlook follows a week of dramatic temperature swings in the Balkans, where the gap between daytime highs and overnight lows — the diurnal range — was unusually wide.
High pressure over the region delivered prolonged sunshine during the day, the tracker reported. After dark, clear skies let heat escape into the atmosphere unchecked, so temperatures dropped rapidly because there was no cloud cover to slow the cooling.
In Kosanica, Montenegro, October daytime highs average 15C (59F) and overnight lows average 4C. On 4 and 5 October, however, the difference between the two reached 30C — more than double the October average.
Separately, Hurricane Simon is moving close to Mexico’s Pacific coast near the state of Jalisco. A category 4 storm, it is the 21st named storm of the Pacific season and the 11th to reach hurricane strength.
At the time of writing, Simon had a central pressure of 933mb and maximum sustained winds of nearly 150mph (241km/h). Forecasters expect it to weaken rapidly should its core move onshore, which would cut it off from the warm ocean waters that fuel it.
Heavy rainfall is already affecting south-western Mexico, where totals could reach 300-400mm across a wide area and 400-500mm in the wettest locations.
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