Snow In The Mediterranean? This Year, Yes

By Claire Harbage,

Published February 18, 2021 at 4:46 AM PST

The setting sun illuminates the ancient Acropolis in Athens, Greece, after a rare heavy snowfall in the city on Tuesday.

A blanket of snow covered portions of the Mediterranean basin after a winter storm swept through the region Tuesday night.

Challenge accepted! Skiing ⛷ down Filothei hill #AthensSnowCapitol #NorwegianFun 🇳🇴🇬🇷 pic.twitter.com/HHiunx7DwJ
— Frode Overland Andersen (@norwayingreece) February 16, 2021

Snow is common in the mountain ranges outside of Athens, Greece, but rarely does it fall within the city limits. Children opted to skip online classes to play. Adults did the same, including Norwegian Ambassador Frode Overland Andersen, who shared a video of himself skiing near the Olympic Stadium in Filothi on Twitter, The Associated Press reported.

In Istanbul, children donned their pandemic masks and winter coats and braved the cold for a snowball fight outside of the Blue Mosque. The storm reached as far as Lebanon's ancient city of Baalbek and even Jerusalem.

Unfortunately, the snow also led to power outages and delays across the region. Roads in Turkey closed, which left some 1,400 vehicles stranded. In Greece, ferry services and flights were disrupted and three deaths were linked to the storm, the AP reported.

People make their way through the popular tourist area of Plaka during a heavy snowfall in Athens on Tuesday.

A man walks on a snow-covered street during snowfall in a northern suburb of Athens.

The hill of Lycabettus during a rare heavy snowfall in the city of Athens on Tuesday.

Children throw snowballs in front of the Blue Mosque on Wednesday in Istanbul. An overnight cold front brought heavy snowfall to Istanbul in the early morning, blanketing the city, delaying morning commutes and disrupting ferry services.

A municipality worker cleans the stairs of snow as people take the metro during a heavy snow storm in the Kadikoy district of Istanbul early on Wednesday.

Seagulls circle over the snow-covered wharf during a heavy snow storm in the Kadikoy district of Istanbul early on Wednesday.

People take pictures at the Pierre Loti Hill near the Eyup Sultan district in Istanbul after a heavy snowfall, on Tuesday.

The archaeological site of Baalbek is covered with snow in the eastern Lebanese Bekaa Valley, on Wednesday.

People walk in the snow in the Sidi al-Hamri region of Libya's eastern Jebel Akhdar (Green Mountain) upland region, about 125 miles east of Benghazi, on Tuesday.

A general view of Jerusalem's Old City shows the Western Wall in the foreground and the Dome of the Rock in the background, as the snow starts to fall in Jerusalem on Wednesday.