In Greece, the thermometer has been flirting with 40°C for ten days and heat waves follow one another. While firefighters are dealing with a series of fires across the country, city dwellers are suffering from the heat wave, especially in the Athens metropolitan area, where nearly a third of the Greek population is concentrated.
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In Greece, one word sums up a lot of things: “ yousimedoupoli “. This is the nickname that the Greeks give to Athens, their capital, and it means the “ concrete city ». One way to sum up in one word the high density of housing and the lack of green spaces that characterize the Greek capital, explains our correspondent in Athens, Joel Bronner.
According to Eurostat data, the center of Athens is also the second most densely populated capital of European capitals, just after Paris. So with the concrete, the asphalt, the air conditioning systems running at full speed in old apartments, which are very often what we now call “ thermal colanders » and in which it is very hot in summer, a city like Athens is therefore transformed into a veritable heat island.
Temperatures that will approach 45°C
A feature that the approximately 650,000 inhabitants of Athens will painfully experience as this weekend “ likely to be the hottest July on record in fifty years » for a month of July, warns a meteorologist from the public television channel ERT. On Friday July 21, temperatures around 45°C were recorded in the country and fFaced with these heat waves, the capital, for example, is still ill-suited to coping with heat waves.
Usually, in the city, green spaces help to partially lower temperatures, but in Athens, there are few of them: just over 10% of the city’s surface is covered by trees. A few projects, such as the creation of “ green corridors » across the city, should eventually improve things a bit. But so far, political priorities seem to be geared more towards investment and construction than the rapid establishment of additional green space.
Like last week, the site of the Acropolis – tourist symbol of Greece – is again partially closed this weekend, due to a further rise in temperatures.
The country is also facing a series of fires, favored by these high temperatures. In recent days, two regions have been particularly affected by the flames: the island of Rhodes, not far from the Turkish coast, and the mountainous massif of Dervenochoria, in the Attica region, 50 kilometers from Athens. In the Attica region, the fires have an impact on children’s school holidays in particular.
This is a children’s summer camp and we were supposed to open our doors on the exact day the fires started in the area.
Summer camp canceled in Attica region after recent fires
“ According to the latest weather forecast, the heat wave could last until next Thursday and Friday, July 27 and 28 », alerts a meteorologist from the private television channel Mega. The Ministry of Labor has called on employers to promote teleworking while the Ministry of Health has made recommendations to avoid all unnecessary travel during the day.
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(and with AFP)