Greece is preparing to suffer its first heatwave of the year from Tuesday with temperatures above 40°C and a “very high” risk of fire, the Minister of Climate Crisis, Vassilis Kikilias, said on Monday.
This three-day scorcher “will peak on Wednesday and Thursday”, and the “risk of fire will be very high in significant areas of Greece”, this minister also responsible for Civil Protection told the press.
Meteorological services are forecasting temperatures that could rise to 42°C in the center of the country while Greece has already been subject to severe heat in recent days, particularly in Athens where 38°C is expected on Thursday.
Mr. Kikilias asked the Greeks for “their help and attention to protect human life” and nature, with the country recording between 30 and 40 forest fires daily, of low magnitude so far.
While summer has not yet started, heat records for the first week of June were recorded last Tuesday, according to the meteo.gr website with temperatures reaching 39.3°C locally.
This Mediterranean country, accustomed to heat waves, had experienced devastating fires and a two-week heatwave, unprecedented in its duration, in 2023.
It then went through the hottest winter ever recorded and now fears suffering “a very difficult summer” on the forest fire front, according to Mr. Kikilias, interviewed last week by Agence France-Presse.
Some 175,000 hectares of forests and agricultural land went up in smoke in 2023, and more than 20 people died.
Rising temperatures caused by human-caused fossil fuel emissions are lengthening the fire season and increasing the area burned, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.