© 2021 Greek Community Tribune All Rights Reserved
Extreme weather phenomena in Greece
November 2021 Greece has seen extreme weather phenomena for the past 30 to 40 years, but their duration and intensity was nothing like what we have seen lately as part of climate change, weather expert and emeritus professor at the University of Athens Christos Zerefos told Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA) in an interview on Saturday. The world-renowned academician said that the rainfall the previous Thursday, the day the storm “Ballos” began, “we saw in some regions of Greece rain that in a few hours reached 1/3 of the amount of rainfall we get in an entire year. This is an extreme phenomenon.” Ballos claimed the life of one person on the island of Evia after the 70-year-old was carried away by rushing waters during the storm. Referring to the heatwaves experienced more frequently in recent years, Zerefos said that “a heatwave like that we saw throughout Greece this summer – which lasted over 10 days – is an extreme phenomenon.” In early August the heatwave broke the country’s highest-ever temperature record. A jaw-dropping 46.3 degrees Celsius (115.3 degrees Fahrenheit) was recorded in the town of Makrakomi in Greece’s Phthiotis region during that event. Heatwaves before 1987 lasted one or two days and simply were not as hot, he explained – the heatwave of 2007 was worse, and that of 2021 even more so. “The increase of these phenomena does not follow a linear progression, but is exponential,” Zerefos warned. These quick alternations of extreme weather phenomena are not unique to Greece, he added, but are part of climate change on the entire planet. Human beings must change their habits, as scientists have been warning for years, because the extreme will become usual — and when this occurs there will be no return, the professor noted. On the other hand, the torrential rains that occur will not make up for the gradually increasing dry spells in the country. According to scientific estimates, rainfall will drop by nearly 15% overall in the entire East Mediterranean. In Greece, “the state must better organize the diversion of rainwater, especially as our country has a lot of large sloping surfaces, a complicated terrain and unauthorized construction, leading to many obstacles in the diversion of rainwater professsor Zerefos concluded.
Greek Tribune
Adelaide, South Australia
© 2021 Greek Community Tribune All Rights Reserved
Extreme weather phenomena in Greece
November 2021 Greece has seen extreme weather phenomena for the past 30 to 40 years, but their duration and intensity was nothing like what we have seen lately as part of climate change, weather expert and emeritus professor at the University of Athens Christos Zerefos told Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA) in an interview on Saturday. The world-renowned academician said that the rainfall the previous Thursday, the day the storm “Ballos” began, “we saw in some regions of Greece rain that in a few hours reached 1/3 of the amount of rainfall we get in an entire year. This is an extreme phenomenon.” Ballos claimed the life of one person on the island of Evia after the 70-year-old was carried away by rushing waters during the storm. Referring to the heatwaves experienced more frequently in recent years, Zerefos said that “a heatwave like that we saw throughout Greece this summer – which lasted over 10 days – is an extreme phenomenon.” In early August the heatwave broke the country’s highest-ever temperature record. A jaw-dropping 46.3 degrees Celsius (115.3 degrees Fahrenheit) was recorded in the town of Makrakomi in Greece’s Phthiotis region during that event. Heatwaves before 1987 lasted one or two days and simply were not as hot, he explained – the heatwave of 2007 was worse, and that of 2021 even more so. “The increase of these phenomena does not follow a linear progression, but is exponential,” Zerefos warned. These quick alternations of extreme weather phenomena are not unique to Greece, he added, but are part of climate change on the entire planet. Human beings must change their habits, as scientists have been warning for years, because the extreme will become usual — and when this occurs there will be no return, the professor noted. On the other hand, the torrential rains that occur will not make up for the gradually increasing dry spells in the country. According to scientific estimates, rainfall will drop by nearly 15% overall in the entire East Mediterranean. In Greece, “the state must better organize the diversion of rainwater, especially as our country has a lot of large sloping surfaces, a complicated terrain and unauthorized construction, leading to many obstacles in the diversion of rainwater professsor Zerefos concluded.
Greek Tribune
Adelaide, South Australia