Alert for summer fires

Higher temperatures are coming soon in Greece, and with them the dreaded wildfire alerts. And, this year, the danger could be heightened because of low rain and snow coverage during the winter months.

The lack of rain means drier plants, and this would help fires expand more quickly. It happened in 2006-07, when rain from January to April was halved from one year to the next and the area destroyed be wildfires was more than 10 times larger.

Snow coverage this year was 25% lower than the 2004-21 average, Stavros Dafis, a researcher at Athens Observatory, says, even lower than in 2006-07. And, while April was fairly rainy, it may not compensate for earlier low precipitation.