July 2023 was one of the warmest on record in Greece according to measurements made by the 52 weather stations operated by the National Observatory of Athens weather service, meteo.gr.
Average maximum temperatures in July were considerably higher than the averages in 2010-2019. For most regions, it was the warmest July in the last 14 years, with the biggest deviations in temperatures recorded on the island of Crete, where average maximum temperatures were 2.8C higher than normal for the season.
The biggest upward deviation in temperature in the country was recorded between 13-27 July, with the deviation of the maximum values exceeding 10C.
For Thessaly, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Crete and the islands of the Aegean, it was the warmest July since 2010. For northern Greece and Epirus, it was the second-warmest month in the last 14 years.
In Athens, the average monthly deviation of the maximum temperatures was 1.9C, with 23 of the 31 days of July being hotter than normal for the season.
In the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, 18 days in July were hotter than the average for 2010-2019, with the average maximum temperatures being 0.7C above normal levels for the season.
The town of Livadia had the largest number of days with above-average temperatures (30), followed by Amfiklia and Rethymno with 29 days each.
The return to temperatures in the 40s Celsius in the next few days and the longer-term forecasts for August, indicate a pattern of above-average temperatures for the month.
August is expected to have temperatures up to six degrees (in terms of maximum) higher than the recent average, according to monthly projections, which however lack the precision of shorter-term statements.
The warmest place in Greece in July 2023
The highest temperature in July was recorded in the town of Gytheio, located in the Peloponnese region, at 46.4 degrees Celsius (115.52°F). This set a new record for the highest temperature ever recorded in Greece since records began in 2006.
At Kranidi, also in Peloponnese the second highest temperature was recorded at 45.9 (114.62°F).
Greece’s July heatwave was the longest in the country’s recorded history, according to a senior official with the national weather institute.
“According to the data, we went through 16-17 days of a heatwave, which has never happened before in our country,” Kostas Lagouvardos, the director of research at the National Observatory, told ERT television.
Greece has experienced an average of 0.7 heatwaves per year from 1950 to 2020, but this average value has increased to 1.1 heatwaves per year from 1990 to 2020, according to a recent study.
The study published in the international scientific journal “Climate” says that there is a generally increasing trend in all characteristics of heat waves, including intensity, duration, and frequency of occurrence during the period 1950-2020.
The areas of Greece that experience at least one heat wave per year have almost doubled since 1990.
The regions of Greece in which there has been the greatest increase in heatwave episodes are the regions of Macedonia and Thessaly, as well as the western parts of Epirus and the Peloponnese.
Also, during the last two decades, a particularly large increase in the number of heatwaves that occurred in the month of June was detected.