Heatwave to Hit Greece with Temperatures Reaching 41°C

A heatwave will hit Greece this week with temperatures reaching a scorching 40° to 41° Celsius (105.8°F) the National Meteorological Service’s emergency bulletin said on Monday.

On Wednesday, temperatures will reach 38° to 39° Celsius on the mainland and 35° Celsius on the islands while they will rise further to 40° to 41° Celsius on Thursday. A temporary respite is expected on Friday and Saturday when temperatures will drop by 2 to 3 degrees,  but a new heatwave is expected on June 26th.

In Attica, the heat will peak on Wednesday and Thursday with temperatures reaching 38° to 39° Celsius.

At the same time, there is a warning for rainstorms on the hottest day of the week.

Η πρόγνωση του καιρού από Δευτέρα 20 Ιουνίου 2022 https://t.co/iuJpo9qctAη-πρόγνωση-του-καιρού-από-δευτέρα-20-ιου/ μέσω @KolydasT pic.twitter.com/s0PJ31QTmL

— Theodoros Kolydas (@KolydasT) June 19, 2022

Extreme temperatures hit Spain and France

Spain, France, and other western European nations sweltered over the weekend under a blistering June heatwave that has sparked forest fires and concerns that such early summer blasts of hot weather will now become the norm.

The popular French southwestern seaside resort of Biarritz saw its highest all-time temperature of 42.9° Celsius (109.2° Fahrenheit) on Saturday afternoon, state forecaster Meteo France said as authorities urged vigilance from the central western coast down to the Spanish border.

Many parts of the region surpassed 40° Celsius although storms were expected on the Atlantic coast on Sunday evening—the first signs that the stifling temperatures will “gradually regress to concern only the eastern part of the country,” the weather service reported.

“This is the earliest heatwave ever recorded in France” since 1947, said Matthieu Sorel, a climatologist at Meteo France, as June records fell in a dozen areas, leading him to call the weather a “marker of climate change.”

Greece 2021 heatwave was among the most intense in recent history

Greece experienced one of the more intense heatwaves in recent memory in July and August 2021. The town of Makrakomi in Greece’s Phthiotis region recorded a jaw-dropping 46.3C (115.3F), which was officially the highest ever to be recorded in Greece’s network of hundreds of stations operated by the National Observatory of Athens (NOA).

The unprecedented 2021 heatwave was also responsible for the catastrophic fires in Evia and Attica—amongst other places—that burned an area almost twice the size of New York City.