ATHENS – While Greece has been hit by a heat wave later than usual this summer, devastating wildfires have been underway for a while and the fire dangers continue. “Extreme risk of fire – Alert Status (danger category 5) were forecast for areas of Crete and islands in the South Aegean on August 28, while very high risk of fire (risk category 4) is forecast for several areas of mainland and island Greece,” according to ANA-MPA.
“The greater part of Greece, with the exception of the mountainous Arcadia region in the Peloponnese, a wedge driving south from western Macedonia into central Greece, and parts of eastern Macedonia which are on category 2, faces a category-3 risk on the country’s 5-notch scale” Kathimerini reports.
The Fire Risk Forecast Map issued by the General Secretariat for Civil Protection of the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection for Friday, Aug. 28, the following was forecast:
Extreme fire risk- Alert Status (risk category 5) in the following areas:
– Crete Region: Regional Units of Rethymno, Heraklion and Lasithi
– South Aegean Region: Regional Units of Rhodes and Karpathos
Very high fire risk (risk category 4) in the following areas:
-Ionian Islands Region
-Epirus Region: Regional Units of Thesprotia and Preveza
-North Aegean Region: Regional Units of Lesvos, Chios, Samos and Ikaria
-South Aegean Region: Cyclades Regional Units, Kalymnos and Kos
-Crete Region: Regional Unit of Chania
State, regional, and municipal authorities are on high alert and the Fire Brigade will on full alert all weekend, “increasing patrols by air and ground in tandem with police and the military. Among measures implemented on Thursday will be the preventive ban by Civil Protection of traffic and pedestrian circulation in national parks, forests, and areas prone to fire” Kathimerini added.
For information on self-protection from forest fires, visit the site of the General Secretariat of Civil Protection at www.civilprotection.gr.
Brief Weekend Respite from Heat Wave
“Greece’s prolonged spell of unusually hot weather is expected to last until at least Sept. 4, with temperatures in several parts of the country reaching 37 to 38 degrees Celsius and oppressive humidity making conditions feel considerably hotter, according to scientists at the National Observatory of Athens,” D news reported.
The continuing heat wave stretching across the country follows “days of elevated temperatures across the country and is proving particularly uncomfortable in western Greece, where the combination of heat and humidity has pushed maximum apparent temperatures – the measure of how hot conditions feel to the human body – to as high as 46 to 48 degrees Celsius, or roughly 115 to 118 degrees Fahrenheit.”
Kostas Lagouvardos, research director at the National Observatory of Athens and head of its METEO weather unit, said earlier in the week high temperatures would continue primarily across central, eastern and southern Greece through Aug. 28.
A brief respite was forecast for Saturday, Aug. 29, when temperatures are forecast to decline in Athens and the surrounding Attiki region, the Cyclades islands, and the eastern Peloponnese. “The change will be driven by a powerful meltemi, the dry northerly wind that regularly sweeps across the Aegean during the Greek summer” D news notes.
Western Greece, however, is unlikely to benefit from the meltemi and is expected to remain hot on Aug. 29. The winds should begin weakening from Sunday, Aug. 30, and the respite in temperatures elsewhere is also likely to prove brief.
“The persistence of the heat is one reason conditions have felt particularly punishing, meteorologists say. Another is humidity” D news reports, adding that Giorgos Kyros, a meteorological-data analyst with the METEO unit, said many parts of Greece have recorded their highest temperatures of the summer in recent days. Yet the thermometer alone doesn’t fully explain the level of discomfort.