We’ve likely the coldest air mass since Feb 2012 beginning to drift south over central and eastern Europe and set to knife across the Balkans and out over the Mediterranean this weekend in wake of heavy snow and blizzard conditions.

The past two morning’s have seen temps in the -40s over Northern Norway and Finland.

A person in Karigasniemi, Finland reported -43C yesterday morning.

-41C in Lapland this morning!

Evolution of this arctic attack via Severe Weather Europe.

With large pressure gradient between Scandinavia and Balkans mean strong winds as well as arctic cold. Wind chills over eastern Scandinavia, Baltics and Russia were in the -40 to -50C range last night!

Low pressure over Italy moves east bringing heavy sea effect snow to the east side of Italy and massive falls over the interior Balkan Peninsula.

Then in comes the bitter air once that low exits. Records may be challenged as we head into the weekend. Many typical cold spots across Belarus, Latvia, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Serbia and even Greece are likely to dip below -20C!

GFS meteogram for a selection of east, southeast Europe cities.

Greece

CFSv2 weeklies

FEATURED IMAGE CREDIT: Simon Hall ‏@SimonHallNews

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