Heatwave: eight days with highs up to 40 degrees

Temperatures in Greece began to climb noticeably from Thursday 20 August and, according to meteorologists, the country is entering the first prolonged hot spell of the summer. Meteorologist and research director at the National Observatory of Athens Kostas Lagouvardos, speaking to the Orange Press Agency, estimated that the wave will last at least seven to eight days and may reach the end of the month. On Thursday Thessaly moved between 37 and 39 degrees, the rest of the mainland between 36 and 37 and Macedonia and Thrace between 35 and 37. The National Meteorological Service forecast for Friday 21 August gives generally clear weather, with 37 to 38 degrees on the mainland and locally 39, and northerly winds of 3 to 5 on the Beaufort scale, locally up to 6 in the east.

What is characteristic of this episode is not its intensity but its duration. As Kostas Lagouvardos explained, after successive heatwaves that had affected Western and Central Europe, the warmest air masses shifted towards Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Greece. “What is notable is the duration,” he said, adding that such a long period of high temperatures will tire the population considerably. The estimates do not, however, coincide. Eleftheros Typos writes that the mercury will exceed 40 degrees in several areas, while Lagouvardos puts the norm at 37 to 38 and readings above 40 as a local possibility, mainly over the weekend. The official EMY forecast for Friday does not go beyond 39 degrees. Meteorologist Thodoris Kolydas, for his part, speaks of prolonged heat until next Wednesday and of a gradual easing towards the end of August.

The geographical distribution of the heat is not uniform. The highest readings are expected mainly in Kilkis, Serres and Larissa, that is in the enclosed inland plains where the air heats up and is not easily renewed. The islands, by contrast, are protected by the northerly winds: for Friday EMY forecasts 29 to 30 degrees in the Cyclades, 33 to 34 in Crete, 34 to 36 in the Ionian islands and 36 to locally 37 in the islands of the eastern Aegean and the Dodecanese. In Attica the two sources give different numbers for Thursday, 37 degrees according to the National Observatory and 36 according to Eleftheros Typos, while for the weekend there is talk of 38 degrees combined with raised humidity. The prolonged drought and the high temperatures are also directly linked to the high fire risk recorded in 30 areas of the country.

For Saturday 22 August EMY forecasts a small further rise in temperature and north to north-westerly winds of 3 to 5 Beaufort, while on Sunday 23 August the temperature is not expected to change appreciably. On both days temporary cloud is forecast around midday and in the afternoon over the mainland mountains, with local showers and possible isolated storms on Sunday. In the west, visibility during the morning hours may be locally restricted. Exactly when the heat will ease remains an open question, as the available forecasts give different time horizons. Lagouvardos recalled that in meteorological terms summer ends at the end of August, so this episode comes in the season’s final days.