There is no doubt that the Mediterranean country is on the frontlines of human-caused climate change in Europe. Last year, it was scalded by a record long heatwave lasting 16 days, contributing to the EU’s largest ever wildfire as an area twice the size of Athens went up in smoke between July and August. At least 28 people were killed and dozens injured.
There was little time for Greeks to catch their breath before deadly floods struck in September, with some areas receiving an average year’s worth of rain in one day from Storm Daniel.
As it braces for another season of veering climate extremes, what are the reasons that Greece is so badly impacted? To find out, we spoke to climate scientist Dr Kostas Lagouvardos, research director at the National Observatory of Athens (NOA).
The Mediterranean is heating the fastest in Europe
We know that Europe is the fastest-warming continent in the world, with temperatures here rising at roughly twice the global average. That’s backed up by a recent report from the UN’s World Meteorological Organization and the European Union’s climate agency, Copernicus.
In summer in particular, the warming is most acute over central and southeastern Europe and around the Mediterranean, Copernicus says.
“The Mediterranean is a hot spot of the climate crisis,” Dr Lagouvardos tells Euronews Green, pointing out that southern Italy, Cyprus, Türkiye and northern African countries are also badly impacted by the rising heat.
The eastern part of the Mediterranean is heating up particularly fast, he adds. Over the past 30 to 40 years, NOA’s research shows that the overall temperature increase in Greece exceeds 1.5C – a very high jump for such a short passage of time.
How do other climate factors impact Greece?
Greece has the longest coastline in the Mediterranean – once you unravel its thousands of islands in the Aegean, Ionian and Mediterranean Seas and the Sea of Crete.
“The existence of many islands that are exposed to the sea makes it more vulnerable,” says Dr Lagouvardos – primarily to strong winds. The country is an unusual mosaic of land and sea.
Marine heatwaves and cyclones set a new record
“We have a system that works altogether – the sea, the air – and as one of the components in this system is warming, then it warms the other,” Dr Lagouvardos explains.
This was the case last year, when the summer heatwave dialled up the Mediterranean waters to a new record.
Cyclogenesis refers to the formation of cyclones and other low pressure systems over the sea. “A very bad example” of this occurred in September 2023 in the form of Storm Daniel, bringing an overwhelming amount of precipitation to the mainland.
Dry winds create a perfect storm for forest fires
Greece’s proximity to Africa means that warm spells of wind often make their way across the ocean. This happened earlier this month, with hot dust-bearing winds from northern Africa fuelling the heatwave.
Now the country is experiencing strong, dry northern winds known as the Etesians, which blow across the Aegean Sea, mainly affecting the islands and the eastern parts including Athens. They typically dominate in July and August, but are now appearing earlier in June too.
That’s a problem, Dr Lagouvardos explains, because the combination of dry, hot conditions and strong winds creates “the worst scenario” for forest fires.
If there is a distinction to be made between Greece and other Mediterranean countries so far as climate impacts go, the scientist says it is this number of forest fires, which is disproportionately high.
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Experts are looking at a range of solutions and forest management techniques to tackle this annual occurrence – including using tech like drones and temperature sensors.
Extreme weather events have increased in Greece
To better assess how his country’s climate is changing, Dr Lagouvardos founded and coordinates a network of hundreds of automated surface meteorological stations across Greece.
These help to provide more localised heat warnings, and to track trends in which parts of the country are warming fastest. It is not southern Greece, in fact, but northwestern parts of the country – removed from the sea – that have a higher warming trend over the past 30 years, he says.
NOA is also keeping tabs on extreme weather events – which it classifies as those causing significant social and economic impacts. From 2000 to 2009 there were 60 such events, jumping by 50 per cent to 90 between 2010 and 2019.
In 2021, in response to that summer’s devastating wildfires, Greece created the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection.
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Reflecting the country’s frontline position, politicians tend to talk in much stronger terms about the crisis than many of their northern European counterparts.
“Greece is facing a war in a time of peace,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said last year. “The climate crisis is here and forces us to see everything differently.”
Source link : https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/06/22/deadly-heatwaves-in-june-a-climate-scientist-explains-why-extreme-weather-is-battering-gre
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Publish date : 2024-06-22 05:02:36
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