Drought conditions prevail in most of it eastern mainland Greece while the high temperature records in the first quarter of 2024 are constantly being broken and the rainfall all the time are dwindling.

Indicatively, according to meteo.gr of the National Observatory of Athens, March 2024 was the warmest in the last 15 years in Central and Southern Greece.

“We are moving towards a more wider drought because until now we had local droughts in Thrace, Eastern Macedonia and Crete. However, we are recording reduced rainfall at the beginning of 2024 in most of eastern mainland Greece.

We are at the beginning of a mild, for now, drought and cannot yet compare to the severe drought we had in Northern Greece and Crete, but things are not going well“, the physicist-meteorologist and scientific partner of meteo.gr and climatebook, Stavros Dafis, points out to the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency.

He adds that some rains are expected in April, but they will mainly be temporary storms that will not make up for the lack of rains and snowfalls of the previous months.

At the same time, in areas with a rain deficit, it is found to accumulate dead fuel a fact that worries scientists about the flammability conditions.

In particular, as Mr. Dafis points out to APE-MPE, increased dead fuel is already found in regions of Thessaly, Western Macedonia, Fthiotida, Boeotia and Eastern Peloponnese as well as in its area Argos but also in South Crete.

“It is not clear what this spring transition period defines for the fires of the summer”, notes Mr. Dafis adding that in the case of a very dry spring there is a greater chance of more fires in the early summer than towards the end.

The possibility of starting the fire fighting season in areas of the country earlier than May 1st is being considered

According to information from the Fire Department, the prolonged high temperatures which are also recorded drought have put the Fire Brigade on heightened alert, while the possibility of the start of the fire season earlier than May 1st in some areas of Greece is being considered.

So far, according to data from the Fire Department, in the first quarter of 2024 agroforestry fires that have occurred appear slightly increased compared to the first quarter of 2023. Specifically, in the first quarter of 2024, 2,378 agroforestry fires have occurred, while in the first quarter of 2024, 2,367 agroforestry fires have occurred. For this reason, yesterday the Fire Brigade issued a statement drawing the attention of the citizens to take all the necessary measures and means of fire protection as several forest and agroforestry fires have occurred in the last period of time, mainly during the burning of plant matter and crop residues.

“We are deserting”

More and more areas of the Mediterranean will be faced with desertification, including areas of Greece due to the drought.

As the professor of Geology and Geoenvironment of the National Kapodistrian University of Athens, Niki Evelpidou, explains to APE-MPE, drought is not only the increase in temperature, it is also the decrease in rainfall and the over-pumping of groundwater. “This is why we often talk about desertification phenomena. When someone hears the word desert their mind goes to the Sahara to a sea of ​​sand. Desertification does not necessarily mean a desert full of sand. Desertification means an area, which has little water and the soil has lost its nutrients, so we cannot cultivate. This is already happening in Greece, and there are many regions where it is happening to us. There are areas whose water today is not sufficient to cover the needs”, notes Mrs. Evelpidou. Such areas, as he emphasizes, are Elafonisos but also islands of the Cyclades.

“We are deserting. Half of our islands turn on the tap and have no water they have to buy bottled to drink. Tap water is for bathing or boiling. And many times they turn on the tap and the mud comes out, the water has run out”, Mrs. Evelpidou emphasizes to APE-MPE.

Regarding the increase in temperature and the drought, Ms. Evelpidou emphasizes that increasing temperature fatally leads to drought, adding that in prolonged drought the soil moisture decreases, so the spread of fire is favoredit is more difficult to extinguish it.

“Increased drought leads to a decrease in soil moisture. This means that the plants cannot bind the nutrients in the soil, so the plant cover is reduced. When we have no vegetation, the soil erodes more easily, for many reasons. Vegetation slows surface runoff, rainwater moves more slowly. The next thing is that through their root system they create some discontinuities in the soil, so the rain water irrigates the soil, so it also enriches the aquifer, which is what we want, and also the leaves of the trees or, in general, whatever vegetation we have, slows down the rainfall from the time it falls until it reaches the ground, they reduce its momentum”, notes Mrs. Evelpidou to APE-MPE, pointing out that something created due to the climate crisis and sudden floods is the intensity of the rainfall.

The same amount of rainfall may not create problems if it falls calmly, irrigationally so to speak, but if it falls strongly in the form of a storm it may create a lot of problems. Trees and vegetation reduce the speed with which rain reaches the ground, thus helping to reduce erosion, flood risk and enrich the aquifer with water. The increase in drought at the same time creates drying cracks in the soil just as a skin that is cracked too much without getting moisture also cracks the earth and the opening of these cracks leads to the detachment of its soil grains. So this also accelerates erosion because all this together is a vicious cycle because if we have a lot of intense erosion and the soil is lost then we can’t even have vegetation”, he emphasizes to APE-MPE, noting that something that confirms this vicious cycle is also the fact that reduced plant cover and drought favor fires.

“The big problem with the fires, especially those that happened in recent years and were so extensive in the Greek area, is not to let the land be lost. From the moment the first rains fell, we saw the lands go away, they cannot come back. About 1 cm of soil takes about 1,000 years. So when will it form, when will it be created to allow the trees to be created and help the system recover. And within this whole vicious circle comes man-made interventions. In areas that are already water-scarce we are still over-extracting from aquifers too close to the sea, so we are putting seawater into the aquifer, by doing that we are killing the aquifer and we are killing the soils. When salt enters the ground, it’s over,” Mrs. Evelpidou emphasizes and concludes: “Our water is running dangerously short, our lands are being degraded and all this is called desertification. That’s exactly what it is, the lack of water and the poor lands.”