Greek wildfires wreak record destruction
A charred forest area is seen next to the beach of the village of Rovies following a wildfire on the island of Evia, Greece, August 12, 2021. Picture taken with a drone. [Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters]
Although the number of forest fires so far in 2021 in Greece demonstrated a relatively small increase (26%) compared to the average of the period 2008-20, the total area burned is about 450% more than the corresponding average during the years in the same period, according to the Meteo weather service of the National Observatory of Athens, which analyzed data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).
What’s more, in absolute numbers, up until Thursday night, 58 large forest fires were recorded in Greece, which burned a total area of 116,165 hectares.
According to Meteo, the average area burned per forest fire in Greece in 2021 amounts to about 2,000 hectares, ranking first in the Mediterranean, followed by Turkey.
