- A snow measurement station near the Kallergis shelter in the Lefka Ori was destroyed.
- A construction company bulldozed the site without informing the Meteo service.
- Researchers warn that taxpayers’ money is being wasted and years of data are being erased.
- Kostas Lagouvardos: “A construction company has leveled the area and razed the station to the ground, without, of course, any prior information.”
In case you were wondering how science fares against the march of “development” on Crete, here is your answer: an excavator wins every time.
The Meteo meteorological service confirmed that its snow measurement station on the Lefka Ori — the White Mountains — has been flattened and not vandalized, not broken by a storm, not dismantled for storage. Bulldozed and wiped clean, as if the very idea of snow was a nuisance to be cleared before the winter season.
Research director Kostas Lagouvardos shared the evidence: a photograph of the station lying like roadkill in the dirt, with a construction machine looming in the background. His reaction was restrained, which in Greece usually translates to stunned disbelief.
“We have operated a station for measuring snow depth and other meteorological conditions … near the Kallergis shelter for several years. We were even planning an on-site visit in 15 days for repair and maintenance so that it would be fully functional for the new winter season.”
Fifteen days too late.
Bulldozers and Priorities
According to Lagouvardos, a construction company decided to “level the area.” No notice. No phone call. No consideration that perhaps a research facility might matter.
“A construction company has leveled the area and razed the station to the ground, without, of course, any prior information. If something else needed to be installed, I do not understand why we were not informed.”
Translation: science bends, again, to the mighty bucket of a bulldozer.
This is not just about wrecked instruments. It is about taxpayers’ money being trashed, with years of data collection treated like disposable plastic chairs at a beach taverna. If you ever wondered how Greece manages to simultaneously chase EU research funds and undermine them with local carelessness, here is Exhibit A.
Science vs. Cement
The White Mountains are supposed to be a living laboratory, a place where snowfall measurements guide water management, farming policy, and climate research. Instead, they are treated as yet another construction site where science is an afterthought, if it is a thought at all.
Lagouvardos called the incident “truly disappointing.”
“It is truly disappointing to see the complete disregard not only for scientific research but also for the taxpayers’ money that has been spent on these instruments,” Lagouvardos concluded his Facebook post.
The snow will return this winter. The station, not so much. On Crete, we now measure snow with bulldozers.
The Kallergis shelter itself remains untouched; it was only the nearby snow station that was demolished.
