Greece gripped by scorching heat
A tourist uses a hand fan to cool down her friend sitting on a bench in front of the Parthenon at the ancient Acropolis, in Athens. The ancient site was closed to the public for five hours due to a heatwave with temperature soaring above 43 Celsius on Thursday in many areas of the eastern and southern parts of the country, as reported by Meteo. Heatwave conditions prevailed in Attica, with temperatures over 40C. The highest maximum temperature in Attica was recorded in Fyli / Ano Liosia (42.7C). According to the network of automatic weather stations of meteo.gr/National Observatory of Athens, the highest maximum temperature was recorded in Voukolies, Hania on Crete (44.5C), ahead of Kranidi in Argolida, southern Greece (43.9C). The average maximum temperature in the country on Thursday was 36.3C, while 136 of the 499 active weather stations recorded temperatures above 40C and 243 recorded temperatures above 37C. Temperatures are expected to ease on Friday. [AP]
