Yellow weather warning for Thursday and Friday

The met office has issued a yellow alert, warning of heavy rainfall on Thursday and Friday.

The alert comes into force at 5.00 am on Thursday until 4.00 pm on Friday, New Year’s Eve, it said in an announcement issued on Wednesday afternoon.

“A combination of locally prolonged and temporarily heavy rain is expected to affect the area at times. The total precipitation is likely to locally range between 55 and 80 millimetres per 24 hours,” the met office said.

Coming on the back of heavy precipitation earlier this month, the rain should help Cyprus’ shrinking water reserves.

Latest figures from the water development department show that as of Tuesday, the island’s dams were 48.2 per cent full, compared to 74.1 per cent on the same day last year. December has already seen an inflow of 3,509 million cubic metres of water into the dams – more than last year’s 3,107 mcm, but only a fraction of the 30,495 mcm that boosted dam reserves in December 2019.

According to the weather forecast, weak high pressure is currently affecting the area, with low pressure near Rhodes moving slowly south and affecting Cyprus from Thursday to the afternoon of Friday.

Wednesday night will be partly cloudy and at intervals cloudy, with isolated showers expected on the coast and in the mountains and possible snowfall in the higher Troodos peaks. There may be patchy fog locally.

Local showers and isolated thunderstorms are forecast after midnight, with snow falling in the higher Troodos peaks. Temperatures will fall to 5C inland, around 10C on the coast and around 1C in the mountains where frost is forecast.

Thursday will be partly cloudy with rain at intervals and isolated thunderstorms. Locally the phenomena may be prolonged and/or temporarily heavy. Snow or sleet is expected in the higher Troodos peaks. Temperatures will rise to 16C inland, around 17C on the south and east coasts, around 18C on the remaining coasts and 6C in the mountains.

Thursday evening will be mainly cloudy with rain at intervals and isolated thunderstorms. Locally rain may be prolonged or heavy at intervals while snow is forecast in Troodos and locally at higher altitudes.

The same pattern is forecast for Friday, with significant improvement in the weather expected from late in the afternoon, leading to a mainly clear New Year’s Day on Saturday, although locally there will be increased cloud at intervals.

Sunday will be mainly fine initially but at midday and in the afternoon, local showers or thunderstorms are forecast, with sleet in the higher Troodos peaks, clearing at night.

Temperatures are expected to remain at the same levels on Friday at close to the seasonal average, edging up on Saturday and remaining at those levels on Sunday.

The depth of snow on Troodos square at 4.00 pm on Wednesday was 16cm.

Highest temperatures recorded at 2.00 pm were Nicosia 18C, Larnaca Airport 19C, Limassol 18C, Paphos Airport 19C, Frenaros 18C, Prodromos 10C and Polis Chysochous 21C. Humidity ranged from 42 per cent at Paphos Airport to 78 per cent in Prodromos.