Weather Review of 2022 for Monemvasia

2022 was a year with fairly mild weather and little rain in general since, except for August and November, all the other months were drier than average (we explain below what we consider average). In terms of temperature, the year was quite cool without temperature spikes and heat waves. It is noteworthy that the absolute maximum of the year, which occurred on June 23, did not exceed 36.8 degrees! We can also say that the meltemi did not particularly concern us, as other years were much stronger. So let's look at each parameter separately.

Rainfall

The total rainfall recorded in 2022 reached 509 mm, which corresponds to 509 tons of water per hectare. As we can see in Figure 1, the amount was 40.7 mm below the average for the 2013-2021 period (549.5 mm – red line in the figure). The reason for choosing this specific period is that there are no losses in the recording of rain due to damage or clogged rain gauges. We also note that although the rainfall was below average, 2022 was not the worst year, as 2015 and 2016 remain by far the driest years.

The wettest month was November with 190 mm, a record value for the month, while this amount was 90.3% higher than the average for the month (see table 1). The year did not start well in terms of rainfall, as the first three months of the year were below average by 11.2% in January, 26.1% in February and 13.9% in March. April was wetter than average, while the next three months that followed had rain, but below average. August was a surprise, with 38.8 mm recorded during the quite intense storms of the third ten days, 3175% above the average of 1.2 mm. This was followed by September, which did not rain at all, and October, which received 69% of the normal rainfall for the month. And while everything indicated that we were heading for a fairly dry autumn, the very rainy November came and saved the situation. The year ended with a fairly dry December, with only 34% of the normal rainfall for the month.

Days with heavy rainfall, which are considered those with a daily amount of more than 20 mm, were only 5, while last year they were 8 in number.

Temperature

As shown in Figure 3, 2022 was the coldest year since 2017 with an average annual temperature of 19.53 degrees Celsius. Among the highlights of the year is the “cool” summer, since both June and July, as shown in Figure 4, were at lower levels than in 2017, while August was the 2^th colder. March was also a particularly cold month with an average temperature lower even than that of the winter months. Finally, December with an average temperature of 15.9 degrees was further proof that the winter of 2022 never came.

Wind

The most notable event of the year in terms of winds was the quiet summer with regard to the meltemias, since they did not have the intensities observed in other years. Figure 5 depicts the average wind intensity by month, where we see that March had the strongest winds. The prevailing direction in this month was north-northeast, which also explains the low temperatures observed in this month. June and August were the months with the lowest intensities. The three highest intensities were on 20/11 with 93.3 km/h (direction is not reported as the anemometer's wind vane was faulty), on 21/3 NNE with 109.4 km/h and on 30/1 SNNW with 111 km/h.

 

Dr. Nikos Mazarakis

Professor of Naval Meteorology