Report on impact of climate change on Athens sounds alarm
A new report published by the Dianeosis think-tank on Tuesday raises some alarming points about the impact climate change is having on Athens, including raising both the Greek capital’s average high and low temperatures by more than 1 degree Celsius in the past 30 years and pushing highs even further in the decades to come.
Tuesday’s report is an update of a more comprehensive paper on “Incorporating Climate Change into the Transformation of Greece’s Development Model,” supervised by Athens University environmental physics and meteorology professor Konstantinos Kartalis, and published by Dianeosis in 2021.
It incorporates data from meteorological stations and climate model simulations, as well as the findings from the more recent literature on the subject of so-called urban heat islands (UHIs), to which Athens is particularly prone due to the prevalence of concrete and the shortage of greenery.
According to the new findings, the average high in the Greek capital rose from 20.55 degrees Celsius in 1971-1980 to 22.15 Celsius in 2011-2020, while the low also increased from 12.37C to 13.50 Celsius in the same period, a seemingly small change, but one that has a dramatic overall impact nevertheless. The trend, according to the report, is attributed to global warming but also to Athens’ intensive urbanization during the years in question.
Figures compiled from the National Observatory of Athens also show an increase in the intensity of heatwaves. More specifically, the average number of annual heatwaves rose from 0.3 in the period between 1971 and 1990 to 2.2 in 2001-2020, with their duration skyrocketing from 1.5 days to 10.5 days, and the hottest spell growing from 4.3 to 6.1 days. In terms of temperature, the high increased from 39 degrees Celsius in 1971-1990 to 39.9C in 2001-2020. Given that in the past two summers Athens has experienced protracted heat waves during which the daytime high soared above 40 degrees Celsius, the pattern is alarming.
Indeed, simulations carried out by the authors of the report for the period 2046-2065 pointed to a 52% rise in the number of very hot days Athens will experience and a spike in the highest average annual temperature of 2.4 degrees Celsius.
