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. The latest stretch of heat comes after 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 high temperatures would continue primarily across central, eastern and southern Greece through Friday.
A temporary shift is expected Saturday, Aug. 29, when temperatures are forecast to decline in Athens and the surrounding Attica 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.
The winds could locally reach force 8 on the Beaufort scale, according to Lagouvardos. While that will provide some relief from the heat in affected areas, it will create another hazard.
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“It will be a very dangerous day in terms of fire-weather conditions,”Lagouvardos said. Strong winds, high temperatures and dry vegetation can create particularly volatile conditions for wildfires, a recurring threat during Greece’s summer months.
Western Greece, meanwhile, is unlikely to benefit from the meltemi and is expected to remain hot on Saturday. The winds should begin weakening from Sunday, Aug. 30, but the respite in temperatures elsewhere is also likely to prove brief.
Temperatures are forecast to rise again
Temperatures are forecast to rise again as the winds subside. Although readings aren’t expected to reach the extremes recorded during the first week of the current hot spell, they will remain unusually high for this point in the summer. In several areas, temperatures are expected to reach or exceed 37 to 38 degrees Celsius, equivalent to about 99 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
The persistence of the heat is one reason conditions have felt particularly punishing, meteorologists say. Another is humidity.
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.
“What makes the situation particularly difficult at the moment isn’t so much the temperature itself, but the consecutive days of very high temperatures and their combination with high humidity, which makes the heat almost unbearable,” Kyros said.
The effect is particularly pronounced along Greece’s extensive coastline. Sea breezes increase relative humidity, limiting the body’s ability to cool itself through the evaporation of sweat and making a given air temperature feel substantially hotter.
Western Greece has been among the hardest-hit areas. There, METEO calculations show maximum apparent temperatures reaching 46 to 48 degrees Celsius in recent days, even though measured air temperatures have remained well below those levels.
The difference illustrates why a heat episode that might appear less exceptional when judged solely by official temperature readings can still place considerable strain on people exposed to it.
Conditions are also difficult in Greece’s major cities, where heat accumulated in buildings, asphalt and other surfaces during the day is released slowly after sunset. Nighttime temperatures consequently remain elevated, depriving residents of the cooler overnight conditions that would ordinarily offer relief after a hot day.
That combination - successive days of high temperatures, humid coastal air and unusually warm nights - is extending the physiological burden of the heat even without record-breaking daytime readings.
