Heatwaves to persist to month’s end

Greece will face not one but two heatwave episodes by the end of July, meteorologists warn. Temperatures are set to top 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in several regions Thursday. The Athens area will see 40C, while in the interior of the Central Greece and Thessaly regions, it will reach 43C. Temperatures are set to climb even higher from Friday to Sunday.

A benefit - if one can call it that - is that winds will die down, making the heat even more intolerable but lowering the risk of wildfires. Even that is not guaranteed though; the disastrous wildfires in summer 2021 occurred with only moderate winds.

In any case, from Monday temperatures are expected to drop 2-5 degrees and the winds will pick up, again providing favorable conditions for fires, aided by the very dry condition of plants and soils.

But the temperature respite will not last long; a new...