Do traditional weather signs have any validity? How is the decision to activate the 112 emergency alert made? What will the new HNMS radars be able to do? These and other questions are answered by the most qualified person, the director of the Hellenic National Meteorological Service (HNMS), Theodoros Kolydas, in an interview on Direct, the protothema.gr show hosted by Giorgos Evgenidis. From his first steps on television and his forecast of a weather “bomb” in 2004 to today’s developments, Mr. Kolydas unfolds his decades-long experience in meteorology, debunks myths such as traditional calendar-based predictions, and explains why the signs of the sea often say more than we think.

He also highlights the changes that the social media era has brought to the way we talk about the weather, criticizes the media promotion of “pseudo-meteorologists,” and stresses that over time, the public learns whom to trust.

He comments on the bombastic expressions used by the media to describe weather phenomena, saying pointedly: “When you mention a jet stream, people don’t understand and they get scared.”

Kolydas also discusses the process of naming storms, how Civil Protection is informed about extreme weather, and the technological upgrades to come—such as the new rain-height radar systems expected within the next 18 months.