The shrinking snowfall on Greece's mountains is provoking anxiety and altering the economy

ARACHOVA, Greece (AP) — As a child, Giannis Stathas remembers being snowed in for days at a time in Arachova, a village famous for its ski resort and long known as a winter playground for Greeks.

“We couldn’t go to school because of the snow,” said Stathas, now mayor of Arachova and the surrounding area. “We might have been stuck at home for two days without being able to go out because of the snow.”

“Now we don’t see that here anymore.”

Stathas says snowfall on Mount Parnassos at an altitude of 2,400 meters (7,874 feet) is what once fell at 300 meters (984 feet).

New findings from the University of Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute confirm the mayor’s observations.

“What we found across 10 mountains of Greece, across the mainland, is that snow cover is rapidly declining,” said Konstantis Alexopoulos, a snow hydrologist at the University of Cambridge and the National Observatory of Athens, and co-founder of the Hellenic Mountain Observatory. “We’ve lost more than half of the snow cover ... since the mid-1980s.”

Using 40 years of NASA and European Space Agency satellite imagery, researchers reconstructed gaps left by cloud coverage and infrequent satellite passes by using machine learning to estimate missing snow cover data.

Alexopoulos said the decline matters because snow acts like a natural water reservoir.

“Snowpack is really like a savings account,” he said. “You can deposit an amount today and the longer you keep it in this savings account without spending it, the interest value is going to increase. And snow works in the exact same way.”

Unlike rain, which runs off quickly into rivers and the sea, snow remains stored in the mountains “ultimately melting at the time that we need it the most,” Alexopoulos said.

This helps sustain water supplies during the dry season, which is especially important in the Mediterranean climate where summer rainfall is limited.

He added that the loss of snow is driven primarily by rising temperatures linked to greenhouse gas emissions, which reduce both snowfall and the duration of snow cover on the ground.

“The snow cover decline that we’re observing on the Greek mountains is not connected to the natural climate variability that does exist,” he said. “The current rate of climate change globally and specifically in hotspots like the Mediterranean is much faster than what the earth has experienced previously. “

Alexopoulos said the team expected a decline, but was surprised by its magnitude. “Other mountainous regions of the world, such as the Andes or the Himalayas, ... have all experienced a steep decline in snow cover but not at the rate that we saw in the Greek mountains.”

The study was one of the first long-term analyses of Greek mountains.

“Studying mountainous environments is inherently difficult due to remote access,” Alexopoulos said, adding that it’s difficult to install weather stations to take measurements and maintain a consistent record of observations.

“In Greece we haven’t focused so much on it because we never really understood the importance of snow’s contribution to our water resources,” he said. “But as this shifts and as this starts to decline, we are seeing those droughts, and we are trying to explain them.”

While Mount Parnassos wasn’t part of the study, Alexopoulos said it is still representative of the conditions seen across Greece.

Back in Arachova, in the shadow of Mount Parnassos, the consequences are already visible.

“One hundred percent of Arachova’s water is supplied by snowmelt,” said local restaurant owner Aktida Koritou.

She said locals have become increasingly conscious of water scarcity and are extra careful not to be wasteful, especially during summer when shortages are most severe.

There is great concern because the springs in Arachova are drying up and reservoirs are not refilling, according to the mayor.

“The biggest problem begins in late August and early September and lasts until late September or early October,” Stathas said.

An unexpected snowfall in April caught locals off-guard and was welcomed as a top-up, but “will hardly help the reservoirs fill up,” according to Stathas.

Authorities are trying to adapt. The municipality is exploring the construction of small dams so that no water is lost, while the ski center is also implementing snow retention measures to help preserve it longer.

Less snow also means drier vegetation and increased fire risk. Stathas said fires weren’t really an issue in northern Greece in the past, but this has changed.

“You could set fire among the fir trees 30 years, 40 years ago and there was never a chance that the mountain would burn,” he said. “But now there is a great danger because of the severe drought.”

Arachova’s ski-based economy is also shifting.

Koritou, who worked at the ski center when it opened in the early 1980s, said the ski season now starts in January instead of December.

“No one will come to the mountain for Christmas. They will go to Switzerland. They will go wherever they find snow,” she said. “So they leave and (business) decreases. This Christmas, there was a 30% reduction, for me at least.”

In response, the municipality is trying to diversify beyond winter tourism, promoting the mountain town of Arachova as a summer destination.

“Someone can swim and in 20 minutes come to stay here where it’s cool,” Stathas said. “But to be able to hold on to tourism in the summer, we have to have water.”

Locals still remember how winters once were. Koritou recalls farmers rushing to harvest grapes in late October before the first snowfall. People kept shovels behind their doors, and neighbors cleared roads together. She also remembers sections of the mountain where snow never fully melted before the following winter came.

“There are some years when despair grips you,” Koritou said. “For those of us who know winter well, it’s disappointing not to see snow. You want it in the winter. The change is enormous.”

Water from melting snow flows down the slopes of Mount Parnassos at the Kelaria ski center in central Greece, on May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

A chalet stands at the foothills of snow-covered Mount Parnassos in the popular winter resort town of Arachova, central Greece, on May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Tourists take photos with the popular winter resort town of Arachova in the background, central Greece, on May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Snow hydrologist Konstantis Alexopoulos poses on Mount Penteli, in Athens, on May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

An aerial view shows melting snow on the slopes of Mount Parnassos at the Kelaria ski center in central Greece, on May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia used the powerful hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile during a mass drone and missile attack on Kyiv on Sunday that killed at least two people, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday, marking the third time the weapon has been used in the four-year war.

The intense aerial assault damaged buildings across the Ukrainian capital, including near government offices, residential buildings, schools and a market, Ukrainian authorities said. At least 83 people were wounded in the attack.

Air raid sirens blared through the night as smoke billowed across the city from strikes. Associated Press reporters heard powerful explosions near the city center and close to government buildings.

The attack included 600 strike drones and 90 air, sea and ground-launched missiles, according to Ukraine’s Air Force. Ukrainian air defenses destroyed and jammed 549 drones and 55 missiles. Around 19 missiles failed to reach targets, the Air Force said.

Ferit Hoxha, Albania’s foreign minister, reported that the residence of the Albanian ambassador to Ukraine was hit during the attack, denouncing it as “unacceptable” and a “grave escalation”.

The Oreshnik, which is capable of carrying nuclear or conventional warheads, struck the city of Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv region, Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

Russia’s Defense Ministry on Sunday confirmed the weapon's use, as well as other missile types, to strike Ukrainian “military command and control facilities,” air bases and military industrial enterprises. The ministry added the attack was retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on “civilian facilities on Russian territory,” without giving detail.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday denounced a drone strike on a college dormitory in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, which Moscow blamed on Kyiv. He said there were no military or law enforcement facilities near the college. Putin said he ordered the Russian military to retaliate.

The death toll from that strike had risen to 21, Russian authorities said late Saturday. They said 42 other people had been wounded in the attack the previous night. The Kremlin-installed authorities of the Luhansk region announced two days of mourning for the victims.

At a U.N. Security Council emergency meeting on the strike, held at the request of Russia, Ukrainian Ambassador Andrii Melnyk denied his Russian counterpart’s accusations of war crimes, calling them a “pure propaganda show” and asserting that the May 22 operations “exclusively targeted the Russian war machine.”

Kyiv's European allies, including France's Emmanuel Macron and Germany's Friedrich Merz, condemned the Russian strikes and use of the Oreshnik in statements published on Sunday. Kaja Kallas, the European Union's foreign policy chief, said top diplomats from EU states will meet within days to “discuss how to dial up the international pressure on Russia.”

Zelenskyy said not all the ballistic missiles were intercepted and that most of the strikes hit Kyiv, the primary target of the attack.

The apparent interception failures underscored Ukraine’s chronic shortage of air defense missiles capable of downing ballistic missiles. Kyiv relies heavily on U.S. Patriot air defense systems to intercept such weapons, but interceptors remain in short supply and are among Ukraine’s most urgent requests to its Western partners.

Developing a domestically produced alternative has become a top priority for Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, though doing so will require time and funding.

Damage was recorded in 50 locations across several districts of the capital, including residential buildings, shopping centers and schools, Ukraine's emergency service said in a Telegram post. Police department buildings were also damaged, it said.

Fires continued to rage into the morning, complicating rescue efforts as buildings collapsed from the blasts.

“It was a terrible night, and there had never been anything like it in the entire war," said Kyiv resident Svitlana Onofryichuk, 55, who had worked in the market that was damaged for 22 years.

“I am very sorry that I have to say goodbye to Kyiv now, I am not staying there anymore, there is no possibility," she added. “My job is gone, everything is gone, everything has burned down.”

Yevhen Zosin, 74, a Kyiv resident who witnessed the attack, said the moment he heard the explosion he rushed to grab his dog.

“Then there was another explosion and she and I were thrown back like a pin by the shock wave. We both survived, she and I. My apartment was blown to pieces,” he said.

In Kyiv’s Shevchenko district, a five-story residential building was hit, which caused a fire, and one person was killed, Ukraine's state emergency service reported.

A school building was damaged by an attack while people sheltered inside, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Local authorities reported supermarkets and warehouses across the city also were damaged.

Multiple communities recorded damage throughout the Kyiv region, according to Mykola Kalashnyk, who heads the regional administration.

Elsewhere, a Ukrainian drone killed a civilian in the Russian town of Grayvoron, in the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, local authorities reported on Sunday morning.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down or jammed 33 Ukrainian drones overnight into Sunday, including over the Moscow region, western and southwestern Russia, and Russian-occupied Crimea.

Associated Press writer John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.

This story corrects Mykola Kalashnyk’s title.

Firefighters work on the scene of a damaged building of the Museum of Chernobyl after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

A rescue worker climbs on a ladder to help evacuate people from a residential building being destroyed after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Red Cross volunteers carry an injured woman into an ambulance after a Russian strike on a residential neighborhood on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A local resident saves a refrigerator from a fire after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Rescue workers try to put out a fire at a residential building after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Rescue workers put out a fire of residential building destroyed after a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

An injured woman is helped by A Red Cross volunteer inside a shelter after a Russian strike on residential neighbourhood in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A man carries a box from a burning trade center after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Red Cross volunteers carry an injured woman into an ambulance after a Russian strike on a residential neighborhood in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Iryna and Ihor react as they look at their house destroyed after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, a prayer house of a local Protestant community of Evangelical Christian Baptists burns following a Russian air attack in Balakliia, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire at a prayer house of a local Protestant community of Evangelical Christian Baptists following Russian air attack in Balakliia, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, a prayer house of a local Protestant community of Evangelical Christian Baptists burns following a Russian air attack in Balakliia, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire at a prayer house of a local Protestant community of Evangelical Christian Baptists following Russian air attack in Balakliia, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)