Storm Adel eases across Greece after battering Attica with floods and hail

Storm Adel swept across Attica on Friday with a force that left the region reeling. From early morning, Athens endured torrential rain, thunderstorms, and winds strong enough to topple trees. Streets flooded—Kifisos Avenue among them—creating traffic chaos across the city. Emergency services fielded call after call about water pumping and flood damage. Schools and public offices shuttered their doors. The worst came just before midnight, when a sudden violent downpour arrived with hail so large and intense that residents in Halandri, Agia Paraskevi, and Keratsini reported it as unusual. The same conditions hammered Aspropyrgos, Piraeus, and central Athens. On Piraeus Street, wind gusts tore down a large tree, crushing four parked cars beneath it.

The three-day rainfall event that preceded and accompanied Adel was extraordinary by any measure. Rain began Wednesday across western Greece, the Peloponnese, and eastern Macedonia, then persisted through Friday, waves of it moving across the country. By the time it ended, the numbers told the story of a deluge: 36 weather stations recorded more than 100 millimeters of rain; 63 stations exceeded 80 millimeters; 138 stations passed 60 millimeters. Three stations in Tzoumerka, a region in Epirus, each recorded over 200 millimeters. That figure matters because Tzoumerka has already absorbed 900 to 1,000 millimeters of rain this entire month—a staggering total that leaves the ground saturated and vulnerable.

By Saturday morning, the system had begun its retreat. The Hellenic National Meteorological Service confirmed that Adel's strongest effects were confined now to the Eastern Aegean islands and the Dodecanese. Attica's rainfall would lighten. Winds would ease. The improvement would be gradual but real. Saturday would still see showers and thunderstorms in the Eastern Aegean through midday, and the Dodecanese would endure them into late afternoon, but the worst had passed.

The forecast for Saturday showed scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms across most of Greece, with more intense activity expected in the Ionian Islands, western mainland areas, and Crete. Central and Eastern Macedonia and Thrace would see strong rain and storms that would improve after midday. The Cyclades and Eastern Aegean islands faced storms with hail, though conditions would temporarily improve before noon. Temperatures would range from 2 degrees Celsius in Western Macedonia to 19 degrees in the warmest southern islands. Winds in the Aegean would shift from southerly to west-northwest, gusting up to 6 or 7 on the Beaufort scale.

In Athens specifically, Saturday would bring clouds with occasional showers and brief thunderstorms possible. Westerly winds would pick up to 4 Beaufort by morning, then shift west-northwest to 5 or 6 Beaufort later. The high would reach 16 or 17 degrees Celsius. Thessaloniki would see clouds with occasional showers, northwest winds at 4 Beaufort, and a high of 14 degrees.

Sunday promised genuine relief. The Eastern Aegean would still have clouds and isolated showers through afternoon, but elsewhere across Greece, skies would clear. Few clouds would dominate, with only locally increased cloud cover in western and southern regions and light rain possible. Winds would blow west-northwest at 3 to 4 Beaufort, with gusts to 5 or 6 Beaufort in the south. By then, the worst of Adel would be a memory—though the damage to cars on Piraeus Street and the water-logged streets of Athens would remain visible reminders of what the system had delivered.

Civil Protection authorities had already begun restoration work on Friday's flood damages. The question now was how quickly the saturated ground in places like Tzoumerka could recover, and whether the region's exceptional November rainfall would create vulnerabilities heading into December.