The heat wave in southern Europe continues unabated. Further extreme temperatures are expected in both Greece and Italy in the coming days. A cooling is not foreseeable.
There is no end in sight to the heat wave in Greece. As the Meteorological Office announced on Saturday, values of up to 45 degrees Celsius are expected in the south of the country on Sunday. In the central Greek city of Larisa, the thermometer showed 44 degrees early Saturday afternoon.
Two villages on the holiday island of Rhodes had to be evacuated. The smoke from a forest fire near the village of Laerma was too strong, as reported by state radio. Tourists are not in danger, it said.
Hotels on the Kiotari coast, around 55 kilometers south of the city of Rhodes, are affected. This was reported by state radio. “It is the most difficult fire we have to deal with,” said a spokesman for the Greek fire brigade.
On Rhodes, locals and tourists had to flee a forest fire.
Record heat wave feared
In the north, too, there were values around 40 degrees in many places. Even most of the Aegean islands have temperatures above 38 degrees. One of the leading Greek meteorologists, Konstantinos Lagouvardos, estimated on state television that “if things continue like this”, this heat wave could become the longest since measurements have been taken in Greece. In July 1987, a similar heat wave killed an estimated 1,300 people in Greece.
The fire brigade again warned of the great danger of forest fires. “We have even more difficult times ahead of us,” said a spokesman for state television. The danger remains extremely high, it said. The fires in the Athens area and on the Peloponnese peninsula have been brought under control. But these fires flare up again and again because everything has dried up.
In Athens, people are also suffering from the heat.
Help from many countries
Meanwhile, hundreds of firefighters from Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia and Malta have arrived in Greece to reinforce the fire brigade and are battling the flames. France, Italy, Turkey, Cyprus, Israel and Jordan are taking part in the extinguishing work with firefighting planes and helicopters, the Greek civil defense announced.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis thanked Turkey for sending two Turkish fire-fighting planes and a helicopter to fight the fires in Greece. “Thank you Turkey,” said the Greek Prime Minister in a tweet. The two quarreling NATO countries had come a little closer in the past few weeks after years of disputes.
According to the meteorologists, the heat wave will continue with small fluctuations next week. A new high is expected on Wednesday with temperatures around 46 degrees in southern Greece.
extreme temperatures also in Italy
In Italy, meteorologists are expecting a new heat wave at the beginning of next week. Then between Sardinia and Sicily peak temperatures of 47 to 48 degrees are possible, wrote the weather service Ilmeteo.
The weather service of the Italian Air Force reported 40 degrees from Palermo, the capital of Sicily, in the early afternoon. In Rome it was 37 degrees. 41.8 degrees had already been measured there last Tuesday.
In northern Italy, severe storms followed the summer heat on Friday. Heavy hailstorms were reported from Seregno in Lombardy. Newspapers showed photos of hailstones the size of chicken eggs. According to media reports, a man was injured by lightning in Verona when he was sheltering under a tree.