Scientists Again Raise Alarm Bells on Climate Change in Greece

On average, Greece’s somesthesia has accrued by astir 0.05°C per year, totaling 1.5°C implicit 30 years, arsenic a effect of clime change. Credit: Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0.

Greece is astatine the epicenter of clime alteration and successful 2024 the state not lone witnessed its hottest recorded twelvemonth ever, it besides saw regular temperatures supra mean spanning passim the year, a caller survey reveals.

According to Climatebook, a Greek technological quality portal connected upwind and climate, scientists analyzed meteorological information and recovered that the mean somesthesia successful Greece for 2024 was supra the regular mean recorded betwixt 1991-2020 during 77 percent of the days. That means that 282 of the 366 days of the twelvemonth saw increases.

Greece started to officially support somesthesia records successful 1890. In the past fewer decades, scientists person been signaling a dependable summation successful temperatures crossed the state owed to clime change.

Climatebook’s technological squad besides recovered that the wintertime season of 2023-2024 was the warmest ever recorded successful Greece, portion 2024 had been warmer by 0.7 degrees Celsius compared to 2023.

“Higher temperatures and much intense heatwaves successful Greece during caller years corroborate a inclination of expanding [temperatures], which had been spotted successful the mediate of the erstwhile decennary and which we tin astir surely presume it volition proceed successful the future,” Konstantinos Kartalis, a prof astatine Athens University and subordinate of the European Scientific Advisory Board connected Climate Change, told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency.

Professor Kartalis explains that arsenic the somesthesia of the oversea level has been systematically expanding across the Mediterranean successful the past 40 years, there’s much h2o vapor produced that remains successful the ambiance due to the fact that of the emergence successful the air’s somesthesia arsenic well. “As a result, though it whitethorn dependable arsenic an oxymoron since astatine the aforesaid clip drought besides increases, the anticipation of large thunderstorms rises, and arsenic a effect truthful does [the anticipation of] floods,” helium adds.

Cars washed into the oversea successful the colony of Agios Ioannis adjacent the metropolis of Volos that has been deed hard by torrential rainfall and floods successful 2023. Credit: Iro Proia / Facebook

Several regions crossed Greece are susceptible to utmost upwind owed to clime change

Some regions are much susceptible to the caller upwind conditions according to Professor Kartalis. Areas liable to flood see parts of Attica, Central Macedonia, ample parts of Central Thessaly, smaller areas successful the Peloponnese, and large cities similar Athens and Thessaloniki.

Heatwaves are mostly recorded successful Crete, the Cyclades and Eastern Mainland Greece, which includes Attica and Athens.

Professor Kartalis warns that the predominant occurrence of combined utmost upwind phenomena successful the Mediterranean and Greece marks an “alarm for civilian protection, since the clime conditions that are being created necessitate a bid of caller approaches regarding the sustainability of the situation and of the infrastructure.”

Kalamitsi Beach connected the Greek land of Lefkada. Researchers person concluded that the full Aegean, Ionian, and Cretan Seas person registered the highest temperatures of the past 4 decades successful the summertime of 2024. Credit: Ggia/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0

Greek seas besides deed warmest temperatures successful 2024

The seas of Greece hit their warmest temperatures successful 40 years this summer. Water temperatures exceeded 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit), according to a survey conducted by 3 Greek universities.

Researchers astatine the Universities of Thessaloniki, the Aegean, and Thrace studied satellite data on the somesthesia of Greek seas from 1982 until contiguous and concluded that the full Aegean, Ionian, and Cretan Seas person registered the highest temperatures of the past 4 decades successful the summertime of 2024.

The somesthesia emergence was peculiarly evident in deeper waters, arsenic acold down arsenic 50 meters successful immoderate areas, and that has been of a peculiar interest to scientists. “This means determination is simply a cumulative improvement astatine work,” Vasilis Kolovoyiannis, 1 of the researchers astatine the University of the Aegean’s Department of Oceanography and Marine Biosciences told the Athens News Agency.

He besides said that researchers observed “changes successful the accustomed mechanics of cooling successful the Aegean, specified arsenic the inflow of acold waters from the Black Sea, which was low, and the coastal emergence of colder masses.”