The warmest March ever recorded was this one in 2024, according to the European Environment Monitoring Programme, Copernicus.
For the prolonged increase of temperature of the weather that results in drought, spoke on Saturday morning (13/4) to ERT, Theodoris Giannaros, fire meteorologist and researcher of the National Observatory of Athens, warning that we should adapt for summers during which forest fires will they have more intensity.
“March was the tenth consecutive month in which, in terms of the average temperature of our planet, we broke records,” said a scientist who studies the consequences of climate change in our country.
“Recently, we have experienced in our country an extreme heat wave for the season. We are experiencing, even today, high for the season temperatures. Locally, temperatures are expected to exceed 30 degrees Celsius until Monday. These are temperatures that under other conditions under normal conditions we should meet at the end of May and the beginning of June” commented Mr. Giannaros.
Describing the situation we are experiencing, he said: “It is a situation that should alarm us to finally take seriously how we can initially adapt to these new conditions that we have created for the planet. In the second year, which requires intergovernmental cooperation at the international level, to be able to limit carbon emissions and therefore reduce the rate at which climate change or climate crisis develops as a phenomenon” noted the fire meteorologist.
Regarding the drought observed in the environment, he pointed out that there are indeed problems in the ecosystems, but our planet has what we call homeostasis in the human body as well. “It is a given that at some point through all this change that is taking place, it will return to balance again,” he noted. However, as he said, “the question that exists is whether there will be man on the planet after this whole process, the long one, to be able to observe that the planet will come back into balance”.
Warning for this summer
Regarding the summer and what the predictive models of the scientists show, he emphasized that “we are going again for a summer when the temperatures will be higher than normal. We’re going again for a summer, which will be quite dry.” However, he pointed out that the course that mercury will follow in the summer of 2024 will be seen from mid-May onwards. “Is the picture the one we’ve had in recent years? another hot summer, which will certainly record temperatures that will be higher than normal”.
Speaking about the fire season and the forest fires, Mr. Giannaros stated that the dry and warm winter has favored the appearance and spread of the fire. “There has been a build-up of dead primary fuel and at the same time as the hot and dry conditions of the last few days, it has come to such a state that it is easy for a fire to occur and for it to spread. These are conditions that are very worrying. A lot of caution is needed, because as we go towards the summer, the weather conditions will definitely become more and more difficult.”
He even called on citizens and the State to adapt for summers during which forest fires will be more intense.
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