Weather locations in Greece

Greece stretches from the Mediterranean coast of the Peloponnese north to the plains of Macedonia and Thrace, and it straddles the line between a true Mediterranean climate and a continental one. The result is a country with hot rainless summers, mild wet winters and a long sunny season, though the details change sharply once you move inland or climb a mountain.

Main climate types

Under the conventional grouping, most of the country, including Athens and all the islands except the north-east, holds a hot-summer Mediterranean type with a long dry summer. Macedonia and Thrace form a transitional zone, wetter in winter and colder. The interior of Epirus is cooler and damper than the coast. The highest parts of Pindus and the mountains of Crete grade into alpine conditions with snow lying for months.

Temperatures

Athens has January means around 9 degrees Celsius and July about 27, with hot dry north winds arriving later in the summer. Thessaloniki is colder, with January near 5 and July about 26. It is easy to imagine Greece as uniformly hot, but mountain resorts such as Metsovo average below freezing in January while reaching 14 in July. Sea temperatures peak around 25 degrees in the late summer.

Rainfall

Athens takes only about 400 millimetres a year, and well under 10 percent of that falls in summer; the great majority arrives from November to February. Thessaloniki is similar, around 450 millimetres. The western slopes of Pindus and the area around Patras and Preveza take 800 to 1,200 millimetres, while Crete, Rhodes and the Dodecanese are among the driest parts of the country, sometimes below 500.

When to go

May, June and September are usually the best months, warm enough for swimming but with far less rain than in winter. July and August are hot and dry but crowded. Ski centres at Pilea, Pelion and in the Pindus ranges run from mid-December to early March.