Tens of thousands of people have already been evacuated in several regions of the country. But the climatic conditions will remain unfavorable in the days to come.
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Greece is “at war against (…) the fires”launched its Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Monday, July 24, in a speech before Parliament. “We still have three difficult days ahead of us” due to the high temperatures, he continued. Greece has been affected by forest fires since last week, like every summer. But as dry, scorching conditions are made more frequent and intense due to climate change, the country is experiencing one of the longest heat waves in decades with temperatures locally rising above 46°C on Sunday.
“The climate crisis is already here and it will manifest itself everywhere in the Mediterranean, through great disasters”, added the Conservative Prime Minister.
The national meteorological agency (EMY) announced on Monday that the heat wave would increase the next day and especially on Wednesday, when the temperature should reach 44°C. Wednesday afternoon, “thunderstorms in the center and west of the country are expected, before a drop of 6 to 8 degrees Celsius”, nevertheless added the EMY.
The islands of Rhodes and Corfu still threatened by the flames
Firefighters continued Monday to fight forest fires stoked by the heat wave in Greece after the unprecedented evacuation of tens of thousands of holidaymakers from the island of Rhodes, near the Turkish coast.
In the also very touristic island of Corfu, in the south of Albania, a forest fire caused “the preventive evacuation of 2,466 people”, locals and tourists overnight Sunday to Monday, a fire department spokesman said. The authorities also called via an alert message on the telephones the inhabitants of many small localities and the holidaymakers who were there to leave “as a precaution their residence”.