At the same time, carbon dioxide emissions from summer fires were the highest in 15 years, with some countries recording their highest levels in 20 years. In just a few months, the European Alps will lose a record amount of ice from their glaciers.

Overall, Europe experienced its second warmest year on record, with temperatures rising twice as fast as the global average, faster than any other continent. Over the past five years, the average temperature has been 2.2 degrees Celsius warmer than in the pre-industrial era.

Greece: the “lucky ones” of last summer

“Our country has become an exception to these record temperatures that have occurred in Western Europe,” meteorologist and director of research at the National Observatory of Athens Konstantinos Lagouvardos explains to K.

He adds that “in the Aegean, the Cyclades and Crete, we even had fairly strong northerly winds with a duration that brought the temperature down a lot. And during the same period, the amount of precipitation also increased in Greece. Last summer, the coolest part of the Old Continent was the Aegean Sea. From this point of view, we were the exception and the lucky ones last summer.”

Because of all of the above, the fires in Greece last summer were at a much better level than in the rest of Europe. In fact, according to Mr. Laguvardos, in the summer of 2022 what happened in the summer of 2021 was repeated in Western Europe, and in 2020 partly in our country.

Greenland experienced a record ice sheet melt during a heat wave last September, when average temperatures were 8 degrees above average, according to the report. “Back in Europe, record temperatures last summer were like result cause an offshore heatwave in the Western Mediterranean that it even took a long time“, says Mr. Laguvar and concludes: “The traces of climate change in Europe are more intense than on other continents.”

With an eye summer- “Significant chance of extreme wildfires”

The results of the report were analyzed in “K” by the doctor of meteorological sciences and his partner. meteo National Observatory Athens, George Papavasiliou.

He first notes that Earth’s climate change is tracked by comparing the current climate (for example, over the last 30 years) with respect to a reference period (for example, pre-industrial period1).850–1900).

Regarding the data for our country, he notes that: “For Greece, although 2022 was also warmer than average, it was not as extreme as 2021. It has been colder than average for over 16 years in Europe and over 21 years worldwide.which clearly highlights the impact of a rapidly changing climate on global mean temperatures.”

Mr Papavasiliou also points out that lack of rainfall has on many occasions led to historic levels of drought in the Iberian Peninsula, especially in France.

Some parts of Greece are also facing a drought phenomenon. Some of these regions are East Macedonia, Thrace, Thessaly, Peloponnese and Crete. “Precipitation that we have observed recently, mostly local in nature, is not able to compensate for the large gap that existed in previous months, while a noticeable element is a significant reduction in the number of days with precipitation,” he said. speaks.

Extremely paradoxical and notable is the fact that during 2022 the wettest month in parts of Greece was last August, when some monthly rainfall records were set. At the same time, very limited snowfall from December 2022 to February 2023 led to problems in the “feeding” of streams and rivers.

However, the weather partner says that the forecasts for this summer are on the same wavelength … climate. As Mr. Papavasiliou says: “From next summer, according to the latest seasonal forecasts, we expect a significant natural climate change that will occur in the tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean, the so-called El Niño phase.

El Niño has a significant impact on the global climate, both in terms of temperature and precipitation, with varying effects depending on the region. However, previous studies have shown that El Niño phases are associated with warmer years around the world. Thus, it will not be a surprise if a “new” warmest year in the world is recorded in the next two years. And as far as fires are concerned, high temperatures and dry conditions create a flammable environment for fires, which significantly affects the likelihood of extreme wildfires occurring under the right fire and weather conditions.”