The warmest June ever recorded in Greece is estimated to be this year’s, based on the temperatures recorded so far this month across the country. As Dr. Kostas Lagovardos, director of research at IEPBA/EAA, tells the Athens-Macedonian News Agency, the first estimate is that June 2024 “will be the warmest overall of all the ones we have seen”, but the final conclusion can be drawn at the end of the month. According to Lagovardos, the first estimate is that it will definitely be a very hot June, the hottest June on average ever, and as he explains, temperatures are particularly high in both maximum and minimum values.

This according to Mr. Lagovardo creates a constant thermal stress in humans. “It’s much more aggravating in my opinion than having a single 3-4 day heatwave and the values on the other days being close to normal or slightly above normal than having continuous, this significant upward deviation,” he notes.

Through the first half of 2024, with the exception of May, the other months record above normal values for the season. “Since July 2023, all regions of the country have had temperatures above normal for the season with the exception of May, which in Northern and Central Greece was slightly below normal. In Eastern Central Greece, Peloponnese and Crete for 12 consecutive months temperatures have been consistently above normal with a non-existent winter,” Lagovardos told APE-MPA, adding that a change seems to be consolidating. “The persistence of high temperatures for long periods is what worries us the most,” he stresses.

Heatwave conditions were recorded in June 2007 and 2019 however none seem to have averaged the values recorded this year.

“In 2007 we had the highest temperature recorded in Athens, in the centre, in Thiseio it was 44.8 degrees. But it was a short period of a few days. But as a month it was not particularly hot,” Lagovardos stresses, adding that high temperatures are expected next week as well.

“What stands out is that since the beginning of the month temperatures have been very high. As our data shows, we will continue to have high temperatures; we will probably see quite high temperatures next week in the east as well, with no wind chills,” Lagovardos notes.

Meanwhile, this June, according to data so far, rainfall is very limited which makes June 2024 not only a warm month but also a fairly dry month. In fact, the hot-dry-windy phenomenon prevails according to scientists during this period due to the strong winds blowing. At the same time, the flammability of dead fuel in the forests is very high which, as Mr. Lagovardos explains, makes the situation even more difficult.

“The moisture content of dead fuel is too low,” he says.

Additional high sea surface temperature values are observed in the Mediterranean and especially in the Eastern Mediterranean in mid-June 2024, according to climatebook.gr. In particular, climatebook.gr reports that in the Eastern Mediterranean, sea temperature is at high levels for the season with temperature deviations of 2-3°C above normal for the season, while the largest positive deviations are observed in areas of the Aegean Sea and the Levant Sea.

“Almost all of the Eastern Mediterranean (except the Ionian Sea) and the Black Sea are experiencing category 1 marine heatwave[1, 2, 3] conditions, while the Libyan Sea and the Levant Sea are experiencing category 2 and 3 marine heatwaves,” the climatebook notes.