The southeastern region is rapidly moving towards a warmer climate. Mediterranean Seawhich also includes Greece, where the number of days with high temperatures is increasing every year.

As Panagiotis Nastos, professor of climatology at the National University of Athens of Kapodistrias and president of the Hellenic Meteorological Society, Panagiotis Nastos pointed out to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency, according to data obtained to date from climate model simulations, in the first quarter of 2023, temperatures are expected in the southeastern Mediterranean and , respectively, in Greece will rise from 0.5 to 1 degree compared to the normal level for this season, and 2022 is estimated to be the third warmest year since historical data. on the global temperature began to exist.

There have been many extreme events in 2022, Mr Nasto said, such as a record heat wave in the UK in July, while temperatures rose by more than 21% in Antarctica. For 2023, the indications that exist according to medium-term climate forecasts say that for the first quarter, the temperature in the entire South-Eastern Mediterranean and, that is, in Greece, will be about 0.5 to 1 degree above normal. “The probability that the temperature in the next quarter will be above average is 70%, which is 70% above the normal temperature level. Warmer climate,” says Mr. Nastos.

The particularly high temperatures recorded in Greece in October, November and December 2022 make December one of the warmest in decades, according to Kostas Laguvardos, director of research at the Athens National Observatory.

“For most of December we had temperatures above normal for the season, with the exception of the period from 20 to 22 December, when it was very cold, the rest of the month we had very high temperatures. There were even days when in Northern Greece we had 10 and 12 degrees above normal. Thus, December is turning into a very hot month, one of the hottest in decades,” Mr. Laguvardos said in an interview with APE-MBE, adding that high-to-normal temperatures persist for three days of the New Year until the Lights hit. throughout Europe except Scandinavia.

Summing up 2022, Mr. Laguvardos notes that “we had a very cold March and a very warm autumn. October and November were very hot months and we saw it continue into December.” “We are sliding into warmer temperatures,” Mr Laguvardos emphasizes, adding that 2022 is estimated to end with an average temperature 1.1°C above the pre-industrial average.

Historically high temperatures were recorded in 2022

“2022, according to research, is still considered a year with many extremes. I recall the heat wave in the UK, which broke all previous records, it was unprecedented. In addition, we had one observation in Antarctica where the temperature increased by more than 21%. All this indicates that we are moving towards a warmer climate. There has been such an anomaly in the atmospheric circulation that the climate system is now trying to balance itself at a new level. In this effort, we will move towards higher and higher average temperatures, and what we thought was extreme today will actually be much more normal in the future. They will be very familiar to us now, they will not repel us. That’s all for 2022. The paradox is that, despite the heatwaves of 2022, we are in the La Niña phase, which is the other side of the El Niño coin. El Niño and La Niña are fluctuations that occur in the Pacific Ocean and strongly affect the climate system. This is the interaction of the atmosphere and the ocean. Although we are in the La Niña phase, during which our climate is cooler, heatwaves have been recorded. Imagine when we get through El Niño what will happen with the rise in temperature,” Mr. Nastos points out to APE-MPE.

According to Mr. Nastos, the rapid climate changes that are regularly observed on the planet and are signs of a climate crisis have as their main characteristic that climate change is now visible on the scale of human time. “Before, these increases took place over thousands of years, now they are taking place on a human time scale. It is the rate of temperature increase that worries us, not the absolute value that appears,” he notes, adding that it is very difficult to achieve the goal of limiting the planet’s temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial era.

“Basically, in 2022, we expect it to be in 4th and 5th place, and it has a good chance of being the 3rd warmest, since we have been measuring and we have historical data on the temperature on the planet and I’m talking about the global level. Temperatures are forecast to rise 1.1 degrees, with October being the warmest month of any past October. That is, we have such a shift in the average value towards higher temperatures, ”he emphasizes.

According to a recent study, Mr. Nastos explained, and based on climate modeling, the Mediterranean countries, compared to their respective Nordic countries, will have an increase in heatwaves of the order of 70% by the end of the 21st century. “Therefore, there are more heatwaves in Southern Europe and especially in the Mediterranean. We have achieved a 7-day gain in a decade,” he told APE-MPE.

Mr. Nastos argues that in the first phase, more efficient energy management is needed. “We need to manage energy to actually reduce our energy needs, by reducing our energy needs we are really helping to stabilize the climate system. If we continue our energy needs using alternative sources of energy, but without changing our lifestyle, we will cause other consequences. Nothing will change. The most important thing is to moderate and limit, as far as possible, our energy needs,” he concludes.

^{Source: RES-IPE}