Snowfall blankets much of Greece

ATHENS: Snowfall blanketed much of Greece on Monday, closing schools, vaccination centres and parliament in Athens, causing blackouts in mountain villages and falling as far south as the island of Crete.

Temperatures plummeted to -14 degrees Celsius (6.8 Fahrenheit) overnight as the front dubbed ‘Elpis’ (the Greek word for hope) brought the first snow of the winter to central Athens.

Parliament was suspended, schools were shut down across the greater Athens area and metro access to the airport was disrupted, officials said. Air and sea services remained unimpeded. "It is an extreme condition for our country," Christos Zerefos, an atmospheric physics professor, told state TV ERT.