What do the data collected by the Athens Observatory show?
The forest fires that occurred in our country during the last 3 days (Saturday – Monday, 19 – 21.08.2023) have burned up to today, Tuesday 22 August 2023, more than 400,000 hectares In particular, according to the preliminary analysis of satellite data carried out by the METEO unit of the National Observatory of Athens (EAA):
🔥~380,000 acres have burned in Evros
🔥~30,000 acres have burned in the Rhodopes
🔥~12,000 acres have burned in Boeotia
🔥~8,000 acres have burned in Kythnos
🔥~5,000 acres have burned in Psachna
It is pointed out that the above data are a preliminary assessment and will be revised with the delineation of fires and the availability of higher resolution satellite data.
The unfavorable pyrometeorological conditions prevailing in our country since Saturday 19.08.2023 played and continue to play a decisive role in the severity and extent of the above forest fires. On the one hand, acting cumulatively, the warm and dry conditions increased and maintained at high and very high levels the ease of ignition of forest fuels, thus making it easy to initiate fire and develop high heat loads in fires. On the other hand, the strengthening of the winds in the areas where the fires occurred favored their rapid spread. The above is very characteristically reflected in the inset diagrams of the map in Figure 1, where the estimated rate of spread for the areas of the above forest fires, as calculated from data from the nearest automatic weather stations of the METEO/EAA unit, is presented. In all areas, the worsening of the fire-meteorological conditions has been recorded gradually since the beginning of the fire protection season (01.05.2023) (the exception is the case of Kythnos, where, due to the strengthened northerly winds, more unfavorable fire-meteorological conditions have also been observed in previous days), with the start of the fires to coincide with the period of the worst conditions, which emphasizes the imperative need for operational surveillance of fire-meteorological conditions throughout the Greek territory.
Source: Skai
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