British holidaymakers warned they’ll face ‘report temperatures’

British holidaymakers seeking the sun in summer hot spots like Greece, Cyprus and Turkey have been warned that they will face ‘record breaking temperatures’ due to an unseasonable heatwave. 

The Copernicus Climate Change Service’s (C3S) seasonal forecast covering July, August and September predicts extreme and hotter-than-average temperatures in the Mediterranean.

Cyprus already issued its first red alert of the summer for extreme heat on Friday as temperatures reached 45C – 10 degrees above the seasonal average and part of the hottest June day ever recorded on the Mediterranean holiday island.

An early heatwave also gripped Greece earlier this week, prompting authorities there to close the Athens Acropolis and other tourist attractions during the hottest hours of the day. 

Maximum temperatures in the Greek holiday island of Crete reached 44.5C this week, while temperatures of 43C were also recorded at weather stations in the centre and south of the country.

Meteorologist Panos Giannopoulos told Greek broadcaster ERT that ‘this heathwave will go down in history’ as weather experts warn that heatwaves of over 40C are becoming longer in duration. 

‘The latter part of the European summer is likely to be warmer than average everywhere (with above-normal chance of exceeding the 80th percentile of climatology for seasonal means), drier than average in the south and wetter than average in the far north,’ the C3S said.

Forecasters Weather & Radar told the Telegraph: ‘We can say that July 2024 is looking above-average for much of Europe, particularly Spain, however that could just be a few days of hot weather that skew the average, followed by roughly around or below-average temperatures.’

‘We are already seeing very hot temperatures in the Mediterranean basin, and it looks like the summer could provide some more record breaking temperatures,’ Rosie Mammatt from the University of Reading also told the newspaper.

Turkey is already seeing air temperatures soar eight to 12 degrees above seasonal norms, which has been aided by wildfires all over the country.

One fire destroyed several wooden houses at the Olympos Resort in Antalya, Euronews reports. 

Meanwhile in France hundreds of firefighters battled a powerful blaze to the north of Saint-Tropez this week which caught crews off-guard.

The unusually early heatwave is caused by winds blowing heat and dust into Europe from North Africa. 

A 91-year-old woman became the first death from an early heatwave gripping Cyprus as the island sweltered under record June temperatures of 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) on Friday.

Health officials said a woman died at Nicosia General Hospital suffering from heatstroke; another five elderly patients were being treated in hospitals with severe symptoms of heatstroke.

State health organisation spokesperson Charalambos Charilaou told reporters the woman suffered a cardiac arrest twice on arrival at Nicosia’s accident and emergency department.

‘After investigating the incident, A&E doctors determined that the cardiac arrest was a result of heatstroke,’ Charilaou said.

He said hospitals have been dealing with cases of heat exhaustion for several days.

Due to the extremely high temperatures, the Department of Labour Inspection halted heavy and moderate outdoor work during the afternoon.

Between 12pm and 4pm, the transportation or delivery of products using two-wheeled vehicles was also suspended.

Following criticism of the government for not having adequate cooling systems in schools, the education ministry also cut short classes in primary schools, kindergartens and special needs schools at 10.45am.

Amid the heatwave, Cyprus is already experiencing a significant lack of rainfall.

The meteorological department told local media this week that 2024 has so far been the tenth driest year on record, going back 123 years.

The country has also been experiencing wildfires, with three villages in Paphos being evacuated as the fires spread through the dry grassland surrounding them. 

In Athens the Acropolis, Greece’s most visited tourist attraction, was closed to the public during the hottest hours on Thursday for the second day running, as tourists sweltered under the country’s earliest-ever heatwave.

Tourists were unable to visit the Parthenon and other ancient masterpieces atop the UNESCO-listed archaeological site between noon and 5.00pm local time.

The Acropolis was forced to close in July last year during a two-week heatwave that was unprecedented in its duration.

It was followed by fires that, according to the National Observatory of Athens, consumed nearly 175,000 hectares (432,000 acres) of forest and farmland.

A record number of almost four million visitors flocked to the Acropolis in 2023, its popularity boosted in part due to tourists arriving on cruise ships calling in at the nearby port of Piraeus.

Meteorologists have noted it is the earliest heatwave – which for Greece means temperatures exceeding 38 degrees for at least three days – on record.

In central Athens, the mercury climbed to 42C, with the forecast heat prompting health warnings and school closures.

Still hotter temperatures were recorded on the island of Crete – 44.5C – and on the Peloponnese peninsula – 43.9 degrees Celsius — according to the meteo.gr website of the Athens National Observatory.

Several other Greek archaeological sites in Crete, the Dodecanese, the Cyclades and the Peloponnese were also shut as a precaution against the heat.

Greece’s climate crisis and civil protection minister Vassilis Kikilias warned of the risk of fire due to strong winds that could blow across the country. Civil protection was on ‘high alert’, he added.

The risk of fire was ‘very high’ on Friday in ten regions, including in Attica, which surrounds Athens, according to his ministry.

Wildfires across Europe have become a growing concern in recent years.

In 2022, swathes of France, Spain and Portugal were devastated by major fires, as were Czechia, Germany, Greece, and Slovenia – to name but a few.

According to the European Commission, 20 EU Member States recorded more burned areas than average in 2022, with a total of 837,212 hectares being burned by wildfires that year in Europe.

The 2023 wildfire season was also destructive, with more than half a million hectares (an area twice the size of Luxembourg) being scorched by wildfires.

In stark contrast to the weather conditions in the eastern Mediterranean, Spain – on the sea’s western end – has been hit by storms and torrential downpours that have sparked flash flooding. 

On the Balearic island of Majorca, Palma Airport was brought to a standstill on Tuesday by a massive rain storm that flooded the island – with yet more rain expected for Wednesday.

Airport officials said on Tuesday evening that 100 of the ‘more than 900 flights’ scheduled to operate at Palma airport yesterday, including many from British travel hubs like Gatwick, Luton and Bristol, had been affected by the storm.

And images from inside Palma Airport revealed the extent of the chaos inside.

One video showed rainwater flooding one of the airport’s runways, with a member of staff jokingly diving into the water to show how deep it was, while another showed the ceiling above the duty free shops in the airport severely leaking water.

Much of the Balearics and the Levante area, popular tourist regions that sit on the east of Spain, were hit by the torrential rain that has wrought devastation. 

The region most affected was Levante, which includes Valencia, Benidorm, Alicante and Murcia – a popular area for British tourists.

Images from Costa Blanca showed submerged streets, overflowing rivers, and fast-moving water barrelling across dry fields before crashing onto highways.

Hail stones fell in some parts of the Valencian community, which includes the provinces of Alicante and Valencia, while Benidorm was on a yellow storm alert with the possibility of rain put at 100 per cent.

C3S said in its forecast: ‘The June-initialised forecasts continue the signal seen in earlier forecasts for higher-than-average sea surface temperature in the next six months, in most ocean basins with the notable exception of regions in the equatorial Pacific and the Southern Ocean. 

‘The former is associated with the predicted likely development of La Niña conditions later in the year.’ 

These higher sea surface temperatures can also influence the amount of rain and the temperatures an area gets, according to Mammatt. 

She also said that 2024 could be a powerful hurricane season, also due to the high sea surface temperatures. 

While these hurricanes are mainly expected to hit countries neighbouring on the Atlantic, they could still wreak havoc in Europe by bringing heavy rain and winds.