A series of powerful thunderstorms erupted in the Aegean Sea on Monday and Tuesday, bringing torrential rain and bursts of hail to several popular holiday and tourist destinations.
The most severe storms on Monday were concentrated across the Cyclades islands in the south, where the islands of Paros and Mykonos were reported to have received at least a month’s rainfall, much of which fell within three hours. The resultant flash flooding swept vehicles and debris through streets and washed boats away from the shore, and 13 people were rescued by firefighters after becoming trapped by flood water. Authorities issued a travel ban restricting road use to emergency vehicles only, and ferry services were also disrupted.
Tuesday’s storms, though slightly less intense, also brought heavy rain and flooding to a collection of islands in the east, close to mainland Turkey, and across Crete in the south. Seven people were rescued from vehicles stranded in flood water on Crete, where landslips were also reported.
Across north-west Europe it was one of the driest and sunniest Marches on record. In the Netherlands the sun shone for 248 hours at De Bilt weather station near Utrecht, surpassing the previous record set in 2022, and almost 100 hours above the March average. An average of 5mm of rain was recorded nationwide, more than 50mm less than the typical March average.
Belgium also experienced the dry and sunny conditions with 7.8mm of rain recorded in Brussels, just 10% of the March average, making it the third driest March in 100 years. 191 hours of sunshine in March, 50% more than average. It was also much milder than average during the day, with an average high of 13.6C compared with the normal March high of 10.9C.
It was also the driest March since at least 1961 across England and Wales, with record breaking sunshine in some areas too. With high pressure expected to continue to dominate northern Europe for at least the first 10 days of April it looks likely to remain dry and largely sunny across the Netherlands, Belgium, UK and Ireland.
