Cyprus Mail 28 October 2019 - article by Annette Chrysostomou
A flooded road in Pallouriotissa between Larnaca Avenue and Digeni Akrita on Sunday
A flooded road in Pallouriotissa between Larnaca Avenue and Digeni Akrita on Sunday
Bad weather cancelled school parades to mark Ochi Day in Larnaca and Nicosia on Monday as the Met Office issued another yellow thunderstorm warning following heavy rains on Sunday which hit Nicosia hard.
In the morning the education ministry had initially announced that all school parades would be cancelled for safety reasons, but by noon the weather had sufficiently improved to allow for some parades to take place as usual.
The parades in Limassol, Paphos and Paralimni went ahead as planned, but were cancelled in Larnaca and Nicosia.
The Met Office issued a yellow thunderstorm warning from 7am to 5pm.
Head of the Met office Cleanthis Nicolaides said the office recommended the cancellation of the parades because it did not advise exposing some thousand children and other people with equipment like microphones to the current weather in open spaces.
The service said isolated heavy thunderstorms were expected with the rate of precipitation at between 35 and 55 millimetres per hour, while hail was also likely.
Kitas weather portal said the atmospheric conditions during storm-affected hours were mainly single-cell and multicellular storms. “The dangers of such storms are heavy rainfall, heavy winds and hail up to three centimetres in diameter,” the portal reported.
It warned of potential problems with the road network due to water and hail accumulation on the roads as well as landslides, isolated floods and power outages.
In the morning, thunderstorms and lightning were observed in Larnaca and Famagusta districts and torrential rain fell in the Famagusta region. Due to rain in all districts, visibility on the motorways was limited.
Water also accumulated on the old Larnaca to Dekelia road.
Police warned that driving was dangerous due to the weather conditions and urged drivers to avoid travelling by car whenever possible.
Though the weather briefly improved around noon, the unsettled weather spread in the early afternoon.
In Nicosia, where heavy rains on Sunday flooded areas of the old city and in the Sopaz area, the Nicosia municipality on Monday was busy cleaning roads from branches, stones, mud and other objects carried by the floods.
“We will continue cleaning the city in the days to come until the problems are solved,” a municipality statement said.
On Sunday, the fire service responded to more than 180 calls for help in the Nicosia district alone as a strong thunderstorm came from the east of the island and hit Nicosia hard trapping people in cars, flooding basements and shops, especially in the city’s old town.
Flooded restaurant on Onasagorou St in old Nicosia on Sunday
“We had to close the outside space when the rain started on Sunday. Even if it’s covered, water started to arrive under the tables,” an employee of taverna Elliniko which is located near the checkpoint in Ledra street told the Cyprus Mail.
“It’s a shame, we lost customers, like everyone around the area did.”
Incidents involved freeing trapped occupants of vehicles stuck on flooded roads, pumping water from basements and dealing with fallen trees.
In Limassol, which was also hit by a storm, a 20-year-old hunter was hospitalised in the intensive care unit after being hit by lightning.
According to the municipality statement, water had accumulated during a short period on Sunday, as the drainage system was not immediately able to cope with the vast amount of rain.
The problems in the Sopaz area are due to the government’s failure to upgrade the central Nicosia drainage network, the announcement said.
“Had these projects been implemented, as the municipality repeatedly requested, the damage would have been far less.”
The problems in the old part of Nicosia were also because the drainage network has not been upgraded, though the municipality has long prepared studies and plans aiming to do this.
The municipality claims that the project was cancelled after objections by local shop owners who expressed concern that their businesses would by affected by the construction works.
Temperatures are expected to rise to 26C inland and near the coast and 15C in the mountains.
At night they will likely drop to 13C to 15C in most areas and 7C around Troodos.
On Tuesday, more rain and thunderstorms are forecast for noon and the early afternoon, mainly in the mountains, inland and in the south east.
Temperatures are gradually going to rise by Wednesday and will remain at the same levels on Thursday.
