Heatwaves to persist to month’s end

Greece will face not one but two heatwave episodes by the end of July, meteorologists warn. Temperatures are set to top 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in several regions Thursday. The Athens area will see 40C, while in the interior of the Central Greece and Thessaly regions, it will reach 43C. Temperatures are set to climb even higher from Friday to Sunday.

A benefit – if one can call it that – is that winds will die down, making the heat even more intolerable but lowering the risk of wildfires. Even that is not guaranteed though; the disastrous wildfires in summer 2021 occurred with only moderate winds.

In any case, from Monday temperatures are expected to drop 2-5 degrees and the winds will pick up, again providing favorable conditions for fires, aided by the very dry condition of plants and soils.

But the temperature respite will not last long; a new heatwave will start on Tuesday and may last until Friday, July 28. Still, forecasts about the end of the heatwave are not yet definitive and will likely be amended.

A worrying sign is that the high temperatures are not confined to low elevations. According to scientists at the Athens Observatory, current temperatures at 1,500 meters above sea level (about 5,000 feet) are up to 14C higher than the 1991-2020 average.

Also, at present, huge high pressure systems cover the whole Mediterranean, leading to even higher temperatures than in Greece. But, meteorologists warn, temperatures in Greece may also reach 45C later this month.

In Athens, local authorities say that there will be no garbage collections from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. from Thursday to next Tuesday and residents are called upon not to fill trash containers during these hours.

As in the first heatwave, earlier in July, certain other activities are expected to be curtailed: The Acropolis, where there is no shade, may close again, and food deliveries may be banned in the early afternoon hours.