Cyprus has swapped its customary summer glare for something altogether more unfamiliar: a sky heavy with grey cloud, isolated showers and gusting winds more befitting late October than the final week of July.
The shift, part of a broader pattern sweeping across Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean, brought scattered rain and strong winds to several parts of the island by midday on Sunday.
Panagiotis Mouskos, an officer with the Meteorology Department, said the cloud cover was likely to produce further isolated showers, particularly over the mountains and in eastern districts. “At the moment we have strong winds in several areas,” he told local TV. “Here in Larnaca we also have very strong winds, of the order of six Beaufort.”
The unseasonable weather has, at least, brought welcome relief from the heat. The suffocating highs of 40C recorded earlier in the month have given way to a far more bearable 35C.
The cooler conditions have had a knock-on effect on the island’s power grid.
Figures from the Cyprus Transmission System Operator showed electricity demand at 1.15pm reaching just 1,077 megawatts, well down on the 1,300-plus megawatts recorded at the same hour on each of the previous three days — 1,303MW on July 22, 1,317MW on July 23, and 1,259MW on July 24.
Conventional generation stood at 475 megawatts at that time, with wind power contributing a further 87 megawatts and distributed generation estimated at 515 megawatts.
Forecasters expect the same unsettled conditions to persist on Monday, but the cooler spell is not expected to last. Temperatures are forecast to climb again from next week, with the mercury set to push back above the seasonal average.
