Concern rises over coming summer heat
Experts are expressing concern about the possible intensity of weather phenomena in the coming summer, and not without reason, given the recent warm winter, the hottest year in modern history in 2023 and extreme heatwaves and devastating, widespread fires.
Indeed, the data published a few days ago by the European Center for Medium-Term Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) on the temperature trend in the summer months in Europe has only intensified the concern.
“The ECMWF examined about 50 forecast models and all of them show increased temperature values for the upcoming June-July-August, compared to the climate value of the period 1993-2016, which was already a very warm period,” said Stavros Dafis, a researcher at the Athens Observatory, in comments to Kathimerini.
Clarifying that these forecasts concern the whole of Europe and are not specific to Greece’s region, Dafis says that “one of the hottest summers in recent years is predicted, with the average being close to +0.6 Celsius above the climatic value, while the most unfavorable scenario forecast of a deviation of +2.5C.”
“Overall, 17% of the scenarios show extremely high values. It is noteworthy that this year is the first time that none of the available forecast scenarios in May show negative temperature deviations for the coming months for the whole of Europe,” he noted.
According to the database of the Athens Observatory, in the summer months of the period 2000-2023 there were 193 severe weather events, more specifically: 113 floods, 26 windstorms, eight tornadoes, 23 lightning incidents (with human casualties) and 17 hailstorms, while six cases have been included as episodes of extreme heat.
The bottom line is that extreme natural events are becoming increasingly common throughout the summer months as a result of climate change, making it a season of enormous difficulties and hazards.
