(Athens) Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called on Thursday for “absolute vigilance” in the face of a new episode of heat wave which is hitting his country with temperatures expected to range from 44°C to 45°C this weekend.
Faced with this heat wave, all the archaeological sites of the country, including the Acropolis of Athens, will remain closed during the hottest hours of the day until Sunday, according to the Ministry of Culture.
“We need absolute vigilance […] because the difficult times have not passed”, warned the head of government on a visit to the Ministry of the Environment.
“We are facing a new heat wave” and “a possible strengthening of the winds” which have already fanned several violent fires around Athens since Monday, he underlined.
Like other archaeological sites, the Acropolis of Athens, the most visited monument in the country, closed at noon and until 5:30 p.m. (9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time) on Thursday, a measure that will be applied until Sunday.
Also, due to a previously announced work stoppage by Acropolis guardians, the Acropolis will in fact remain closed until its usual closing time of 8 p.m. local time (1 p.m. Eastern) from Thursday to Sunday.
The guards’ union PEYFA claimed that at least 20 visitors had passed out at the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It had already partially closed last weekend, due to temperatures that can climb to 45°C.
The Red Cross once again deployed at the bottom of the Sacred Rock to distribute tens of thousands of bottles of water to visitors as the thermometer showed 38°C in Athens on Thursday midday.
Greece expects maximum temperatures of 43°C on Thursday and they are expected to rise further in the coming days with 44 to 45°C expected on Friday and Saturday in the center of the country.
In the Greek capital, an absolute record temperature of 44.8°C was recorded in June 2007, according to the National Observatory of Athens, while the absolute record in Greece was reached in July 1977 with 48°C in Elefsina, near Athens.
On the front of violent forest fires, the situation was much better on Thursday.
However, hundreds of firefighters are still battling the still active outbreaks west of Athens, which have so far burned thousands of hectares.
The Prime Minister deplored “the very unpleasant situation on the front of the fires which have been burning for four days in Attica, Athens region, in Corinth and in Boétie, departments close to the capital”.
The risk of fire remains very high for the region surrounding the Greek capital, Attica, as well as the Peloponnese peninsula (southwest) and central Greece, according to Civil Protection.
On the tourist island of Rhodes where a forest fire broke out two days ago, five planes and five helicopters continue to operate Thursday against the flames.
Southeast of Athens, 3472 hectares have burned in recent days, according to the European observatory Copernicus.