Prepare to freeze

TORRENTIAL rain and heavy winds hit the island again yesterday morning, with experts warning weather conditions would worsen over the weekend.

Weather Service director Kyriacos Theofilou said the region was being affected by low pressure and cold atmospheric masses that would cause temperatures today to drop to seven degrees inland and -2 in Troodos.

“It looks like weather conditions will worsen over the weekend, with storms and high winds,” he said.

“There will be a dramatic drop in temperatures on Saturday to a maximum of 7C inland and 10 in coastal areas, while we are expecting the temperature in Troodos to drop to -2C.”

Theofilou said temperatures last night were expected to drop to 3 degrees and warned of frosty conditions and fog in many parts of the island in the morning, while heavy winds of up to force 8 are expected to hit the island again.

“We are expecting snowfall on Friday and Saturday and the drop in temperatures could mean that we might have snowfall in the lower regions,” he said.

“On Sunday, we will have a gradual improvement in weather conditions, with less rainfall and more sunshine, but temperatures will remain low.”

Meanwhile, Cyprus Airways (CY) yesterday announced it had cancelled flights to Athens due to the closing down of Eleftherios Venizelos airport due to unprecedented heavy snowfall in the Greek capital.

In a news release yesterday, CY advised passengers flying to Athens over the weekend to contact the company’s call centre for more information on 8000 0008.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.