Heatwave: some 2,000 people evacuated from a Greek island in flames, the United States crushed by the heat

July 22, 2023

More than 30,000 people had to flee the flames on the island of Rhodes, crushed like all of Greece under a furnace favoring fires, while the heat wave also continues to progress in the south of the United States.

Since the start of summer, heat has been overwhelming tens of millions of people around the world and July could prove to be the hottest month on record on Earth, according to predictions from experts who point to the impact of global warming.

In Greece, where firefighters have recorded 46 new fires in 24 hours, the fire rages on Sunday for the sixth day in a row on the very touristic island of Rhodes, in the Dodecanese archipelago.

A disaster out of control in the east of this island led to the evacuation by boat of around 2,000 people on Saturday, while some 30,000 others were sheltered in gymnasiums, schools or conference centers for the night. Panagiotis Dimelis, a local elected official from the village of Archangelos, described on Skai TV “an unprecedented situation”.

The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs has opened a crisis unit in Athens to facilitate the repatriation of foreign tourists.

During the night from Saturday to Sunday, the flames reached the village of Laerma, burning houses and a church, according to the ERT TV channel and the Greek news agency ANA. Many hotels were also affected and the fire spread to the coastal villages of Kiotari and Gennadi Lardos.

The fight to contain the fire will take several more days, according to the authorities. The wind, which is fanning it, “should strengthen between midday and 5:00 p.m. (2:00 p.m. GMT)”, warned firefighter spokesman Vassilis Vathrakoyiannis.

Temperatures exceeding 44°C are expected for Sunday in Greece. According to the national meteorological observatory, this country is going through “probably” the longest heat wave in its history. All archaeological sites, such as the famous Acropolis of Athens, will remain closed during the hottest hours.

“We will probably experience a 16-17 day heat wave, which has never happened before in our country,” Kostas Lagouvardos, the research director at the observatory, told ERT.

“We need absolute vigilance (…) because the difficult times have not passed,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis warned on Friday.

On the surface of the sea, the mercury was 2 to 3°C above normal, the meteorological services announced on Saturday.

In the United States, about 80 million people will experience temperatures of 41 ° C and more this weekend, alerted the American weather services (NWS).

They could rise to more than 46°C in Phoenix, Arizona (southwest), which is currently experiencing its longest heat wave on record: Friday, the mercury exceeded 43°C for the 22nd day in a row.

500 km away, in California, Death Valley and its highest temperatures on the planet attract tourists, the latter wanting to take their picture alongside a screen displaying a mercury always at its highest.

Some are waiting for the absolute record on Earth – 56.6°C recorded there in 1913 -, disputed by some experts, to be beaten.

A 71-year-old man died there earlier this week and Death Valley National Park rangers suspect “heat played a part” in his death, which would make it the second of the year under the circumstances.

For the rest of July, the heat wave should move towards the center of the United States, on the side of the Rockies and the Great Plains of the Midwest, according to the American Agency for Oceanic and Atmospheric Observation (NOAA).

In Canada, the scene of record flooding due to torrential rains, four people, including two children, have been reported missing in the eastern province of Nova Scotia, police said.

“Some regions have already received more than 150 mm of rain,” said the meteorological services, adding that additional precipitation “of a tropical nature”, at least 40 to 100 mm, was expected.

July is on track to break the record for the hottest month ever recorded on Earth, not only in the time that measurements were taken but also in “hundreds, if not thousands of years,” NASA chief climatologist Gavin Schmidt told reporters.

This is not just due to El Niño, the cyclic weather phenomenon that originates in the Pacific Ocean and causes global temperatures to rise, he said.

For this specialist, the extreme temperatures will persist because “we continue to emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere”.

Compared to the pre-industrial era, the world is experiencing a warming close to 1.2°C due to human activity, mainly the use of fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas).