Heat waves

The summer months of 2024 were not only the hottest on record but also marked by prolonged periods of high temperatures. The Copernicus service notes: “What we are experiencing is not just numbers in a record book, but weather that affects people’s lives.”

Unprecedented Heat

Bulgaria recently endured an exceptionally hot and dry period, according to the latest JRC MARS Bulletin from the European Commission's Joint Research Center, which monitors crops across Europe. The report indicates that temperatures during this period exceeded normal levels by 2-3°C, marking the hottest conditions since 1975.

In 2023, more than 47,000 people across Europe lost their lives due to extreme heat, making it the hottest year on record globally. This alarming figure is based on research conducted by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, which highlights Bulgaria as the country with the highest heat-related mortality rate.

The European climate change agency Copernicus has announced that by all indications so far, 2024 will be the hottest year on the planet since records have been kept.

If the projection is correct, 2024 will succeed 2023 as the warmest year on record.

It is "increasingly likely" 2024 will be the hottest year on record, despite July ending a 13-month streak of monthly temperature records, the EU's climate monitor said Thursday.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said last month was the second warmest on record books going back to 1940, only slightly cooler than July 2023.

More heat expected in western Greece

Which areas showed 42 °C yesterday - When will there be another heatwave

Although once a rare phenomenon, June heatwaves have become more frequent in recent years, with another set to grip the country in its hot embrace beginning Tuesday through to Friday, with temperatures predicted to soar in places to more than 42 Celsius.

The intense northern hemisphere summer heat that drove wildfires across the Mediterranean, buckled roads in Texas and strained power grids in China last year made it not just the warmest summer on record - but the warmest in some 2,000 years, new research suggests.

This April, high maximum daily temperatures were widespread across Greece, according to data from the network of 53 meteorological stations operated by meteo.gr of the National Observatory of Athens.

Positive temperature anomalies marked many days of the month, resulting in the warmest April since 2010 in Thessaly, the Peloponnese and the Aegean Islands (excluding Crete).