Greek Mountains Lose Over Half Their Snow Cover in Four Decades, Study Finds

A new international study finds that snow cover on Greece’s mountains has fallen 58 percent over the past 40 years, with the loss rate accelerating since the early 2000s. The snow season now starts later and ends earlier, shortening the period of snow presence.

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Snow in the Greek highlands supplies water to communities, agriculture and ecosystems during the dry summer. The study attributes the decline to rising Mediterranean temperatures, noting that winter temperatures are near freezing and snowmelt traditionally buffers summer drought. The Mediterranean region has experienced notable warming over recent decades, intensifying seasonal snow melt. The reduction therefore threatens water security in a country with small catchments.

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The team merged NASA and ESA satellite imagery with climate data, terrain maps and AI techniques to create continuous snow-cover records. Machine-learning filled gaps caused by clouds or shadows, producing the SnowMapper tool. SnowMapper provides daily 100-metre snow maps for ten of Greece’s highest mountains from 1984 to 2025.

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The study was led by Konstantinos Alexopoulos of the Hellenic Mountain Observatory and Professor Ian Willis of the Scott Polar Research Centre, University of Cambridge. Co-authors included scientists from the British Antarctic Survey, the National Observatory of Athens and the Hellenic Mountain Observatory. Funding came from the Bodossaki Foundation, the George & George Foundation, the National Geological Survey of Greece, the Cambridge Trust and the Royal Geographical Society. The collaboration combined expertise from polar research, national observatories and mountain-monitoring agencies.

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• Snow-cover area fell 58 percent between 1984 and 2025.

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• The decline accelerated after 2000, with a later onset and earlier end to the snow season.

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• SnowMapper’s 100-metre maps show Greece losing winter snow faster than most other mountain ranges studied.

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Snow in Greek mountains is a key water source for communities, agriculture and ecosystems during the dry summer. The rapid loss threatens supplies where catchments are small, winter temperatures hover near freezing, and snowmelt traditionally buffers drought. Reduced snow also endangers ecosystems that rely on seasonal meltwater. Communities that depend on snowmelt for irrigation may face heightened water scarcity during peak summer months.

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The analysis covers ten of Greece’s highest mountain formations, leaving other mountainous regions without comparable daily, high-resolution snow data. Consequently, the full extent of snow-cover change across all Greek terrain remains unquantified.

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