Ministry of Climate Crisis & Civil Protection

Very high risk of fire (risk category 4) is forecast for today Saturday for the region of Attica and areas of the regions of Peloponnese, Western Greece, Central Greece, Thessaly and Crete.

The state and the General Secretariat for Civil Protection are on high alert as storm Atena has already started affecting the country. According to meteorological forecasts, it will continue until Wednesday afternoon. Yesterday, the first alerts from the 112 emergency service were sent to citizens’ mobile phones in Western Greece, Macedonia, and Thessaly.

Severe weather instability is expected to continue across much of the country on Saturday, August 31st. The National Weather Service has updated the Special Weather Circular, initially issued on August 29th, 2024, at noon.

August will bid us farewell with instability according to the weather forecasts. As both Thodoros Kolydas and Klearchos Marousakis say in their posts, cold air masses coming from Ukraine, where they will be over our region via the Black Sea, will bring rain and thunderstorms until the end of the week.

With temperatures reaching 39 degrees Celsius, the weekend, with the risk of wildfires increasing in several areas. Any showers that do occur will be isolated and limited to mountainous areas.

The European Commission has announced the start of production for 12 new Canadair DHC 515 firefighting aircraft, which will form the permanent European forest firefighting fleet (rescEU). These aircraft will be permanently stationed in Greece, Croatia, France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain.

 After a long period, the very high temperatures are subsiding and we are back to slightly above normal for the season, says the director of the National Weather Service, Thodoros Kolydas.

The Scientific Risk Assessment Committee met at noon on Thursday (22/8) due to the severe weather conditions that will prevail in the coming days and is currently being chaired by the Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Vassilis Kikilias, inter-ministerial – coordination meeting with the participation of representatives of local authorities and all Civil Protection agencies.

The fire brigade is concerned about the intensity of the winds, as it is operating for the second consecutive day on the fire fronts from Varnavas and Marathon, up to Penteli and Nea Makri. The winds may have weakened during the night, but by dawn, they will become gusty again, although with lower intensities than yesterday, according to EMF director Thodoris Kolydas.

We will head into August 15 with heat and windy weather, according to meteorologists, with the weather conditions favoring the start and spread of fire.

North winds in the Aegean Sea will reach 6 to 7 and on Sunday possibly even 8 Beaufort, keeping the temperature in the windward areas at bearable levels.