The first heat wave in the country is just around the corner, as the research director of the National Observatory of Athens, Costas Lagouvardos, reports to the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency, it is estimated that in the next period, very high temperatures will prevail in the country for about a week.

Specifically, from Tuesday, July 11, temperatures above 37 degrees Celsius will prevail in the country, while from Wednesday, July 12, the thermometer will start to rise even more.

“What seems like the first evidence is that it will start from next Tuesday 11/7 and probably for 7 days a period of high temperatures. My estimate is that we will see temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius in many areas and there is a possibility that it will last while next weekend these temperatures will reach their peak”, Mr. Lagouvardos explains to APE-MPE.

As he emphasizes, a warm invasion begins that will be felt on Monday in the regions of Spain, Southern France and Italy. Much of Spain, Southern France, Sardinia, Corsica and Sicily until Wednesday, Thursday will have been covered by these warm air masses which from Wednesday onwards will also affect Greece and the Balkans.

“ The high temperatures will start from Tuesday. We are likely to see temperatures in excess of 40 degrees Celsius if these forecasts are confirmed and continue until July 20. This is a first trend for the duration we are not sure yet. What is apparent at the moment is that we will have a new warm invasion that will cross a large part of the central Mediterranean in the coming week and the first trend is that the warm invasion will be higher than the one we have had so far”, notes Mr. Lagouvard.

At the same time, Mr. Lagouvardos emphasizes that it is necessary caution as the risk of forest fires will be increased. “The extended period of high temperatures from 11/7-20/7 in addition to the effects it will have on people will also have consequences on agricultural crops as well as forest fires,” he says, adding: “Although we had a rainy and cool June the fine fuel, which is on the surface, in the forests dries up extremely quickly. He needs a lot of attention in this part as well. As a first image, we are entering a dangerous period for forest fires”.

The world’s hottest June on record – How El Niño affects high temperatures

June 2023 was exceptionally warm for several regions worldwide, breaking hundreds of temperature records, as it was recorded as the warmest June since 1979 worldwide, according to Climatebook.

The largest positive temperature deviations were recorded in regions of Northern and Western Europe, where countries such as England, Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands recorded their warmest June on record.

In contrast, with Northern and Western Europe, the southern Balkans, Greece, Turkey and Western Russia the temperature was below average, as was the case in April and May.

“However, the result is that in the whole of Epirus, if one puts them down, we had a significant upward deviation. Southeast Europe did not follow the pattern of the rest of Europe for June. In Greece, in June as well as in May, temperatures were below normal values”, Mr. Lagouvardos underlines to APE-MPE.

On Tuesday, the Earth’s average temperature reached 17 degrees Celsius, which, as Mr. Lagouvardos explains, has never happened before.

Climate change combined with the periodic El Nino weather phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean, according to Mr. Lagouvardo, are key factors for the higher temperatures and changes in water temperature.

“We have entered the phase of the El Niño phenomenon, at the beginning of this phenomenon. Scientists recall that 2016, which also had very significant deviations, was again a year in which we had a strong El Niño. In other words, there is a fear that with El Niño in the coming months, the temperatures in the Pacific Ocean will rise even more than our data shows. This also drags the air temperatures along and towards the end of the year, in the summer of the southern hemisphere, we will probably see much higher temperatures. We will now perhaps see temperatures that will be well above normal at the global level for a longer period of time,” Mr. Lagouvardos points out and adds that together with climate change, El Niño will raise temperatures even more.

“It doesn’t raise temperatures everywhere, but because it raises them over a large part of the planet, it drags the averages down in other areas as well,” he emphasizes.