Spurred on by this summer’s record temperatures, Greek scientists have begun discussing the need to name and rank heat waves, better known for their invisibility, before rampant wildfires made the realities of the climate crisis increasingly stark.
A preventive measure, the move would enable policymakers and affected populations to be more prepared for what are being described by experts as “silent killers.”
Greece has experienced two bouts of extreme heat since June, both unusually prolonged and intense, with the second wave lasting almost three weeks.
Photo: EPA-EFE
A new rise in temperatures last week saw Athens once again fall victim to peri-urban fires, with devastating blazes breaking out northwest of the capital.
National Observatory of Athens research director Kostas Lagouvardos told the Observer that extreme heat has clearly been underestimated.
“This very hot summer has given us a snapshot of a future climate in 20 or 30 years’ time when we’re likely to have very long periods of very high temperatures,” he said. “It’s extreme behavior, but it could become the norm. Unlike other adverse weather events, you can’t see extreme heat.”
State authorities and citizens must become aware of the dangers, Lagouvardos said.
“We believe people will be more prepared to face an upcoming weather event when the event has a name,” he said. “They’ll become more aware of the possible problems it could cause to their lives and to their properties. Heat waves cause a lot of deaths. They don’t make noise and they may not be visible, but they’re a silent killer.”
Greece has been far from alone in enduring extreme heat or forest fires in recent months. The mercury hit 48.8°C in Syracuse, Sicily, on Aug. 11 — the hottest temperature recorded in Europe — with infernos erupting across the Mediterranean region.
However, in a region regarded as a climate crisis hotspot, Athens is mainland Europe’s hottest metropolis, singled out in repeated studies as likely to experience significant fallout from a warming planet.
On Aug. 3, the country’s highest-ever temperature of 47.1°C was registered in northern Greece.
Mega fires — some blamed on arsonists — have consumed vast tracts of land in the past few weeks, destroying homes and leading to mass evacuations, most noticeably on Evia, the nation’s second-largest island.
Forced to issue an apology following fierce criticism over his administration’s handling of the blazes, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that the unprecedented weather had effectively “turned the country into a powder keg,” with nearly 600 forest fires flaring up in one week.
“This is the climate crisis striking here and now,” he told CNN. “We need to drastically change the way we produce electricity, build our buildings, grow our food and move around.”
The fallout from what Mitsotakis also described as the nation’s biggest ecological disaster in decades has been immense, with the leader also being forced to announce a 500 million euro (US$16.4 million) relief package and create a new ministerial post overseeing recovery from natural disasters.
More than 20 countries dispatched firefighters, equipment and planes to Greece.
Four years ago, Greek meteorologists began naming winter storms and other adverse weather phenomena, as the challenges to lives and properties became clear.
Lagouvardos, who trained in France and is the Observatory’s head meteorologist, said that ranking heat waves would be “trickier” because categorization inevitably involved gauging temperature distribution and population densities.
However, more generally, heat waves were easier to predict in intensity and duration than storms.
If temperatures of more than 40°C persist for more than one week, Greek scientists believe that they should be named, he said.
The same series of alternate male and female monikers drawn from Greek history and mythology that had been used for storms could be applied to heat waves.
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