Greece records hottest summer in history, Say researchers

Greece's national observatory on Friday said the nation experienced its hottest summer on record in 2024, surpassing the previous milestone by one degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit).

June and July were the warmest months since records began in 1960, while August was the second hottest behind August 2021, the observatory said on its meteo.gr website.

The data followed a season of heatwaves around the world that scientists said were intensified by human-driven climate change.

The observatory said it made a preliminary conclusion drawing on data from the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service.

It noted that on average, summer temperatures in Greece have risen by 2.3 Celsius between 1960 and 2024.

The agency in March noted that the 2023 winter was Greece's warmest on record.

Combined with prolonged drought, Greece this summer was again hit by scores of wildfires, one of which burned through to the Athens suburbs in August, killing a woman trapped in a factory.

Observatory chairman Manolis Plionis this week said that the number of Greek wildfires this year -- over 4,000 since May according to officials -- was higher than the 20-year average.

Fire weather conditions were also the worst in over 40 years, he wrote in To Vima weekly.

The 2024 northern summer saw the highest global temperatures ever recorded, beating last year's record, the EU's climate monitor said on Friday.

"During the past three months of 2024, the globe has experienced the hottest June and August, the hottest day on record, and the hottest boreal summer on record," Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Copernicus, said in a report.

"This string of record temperatures is increasing the likelihood of 2024 being the hottest year on record."