Earliest-ever heat wave closes Acropolis
ATHENS, Greece (AFP) — The Athens Acropolis, Greece’s most visited tourist site, was closed to the public during the hottest hours of Wednesday as the season’s earliest-ever heat wave swept the country, prompting school closures and health warnings.
The UNESCO-listed archaeological site closed from noon to 5 p.m., with temperatures topping 43 degrees Celsius in central Greece.
Temperatures of up to 44 degrees Celsius are expected on Thursday as the phenomenon peaks, with up to 43 degrees forecast in the capital.
Meteorologists have noted this is the earliest heat wave — which for Greece is temperatures exceeding 38 degrees Celsius for at least three days — on record.
“This heat wave will go down in history,” meteorologist Panos Giannopoulos said on state TV ERT.
“In the 20th century we never had a heat wave before June 19. We have had several in the 21st century, but none before June 15,” he said.
The Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Ministry has warned of a very high risk of fires in the Attica region around Athens.
Schools stayed closed in several regions of the country on Wednesday and will do so again on Thursday, including in the capital, while the Labor Ministry has advised publicsector employees to work from home.
The ministry also ordered a pause from noon to 5 p.m. for outdoor work including food delivery.
Still, many employees are obliged to take their own precautions.
Tassos Konstantinidis, a 25-yearold selling mobile phone cards for a major telecoms company, wore a cap and brought along an icebox for his water.
“I lived this last year when we had almost 10 days of heat wave,” he said.
“It’s up to me to organize myself and take breaks if needed,” he told Agence France-Presse. “My employer has made no such provisions.”
Sheltering under a parasol, electrician Fotis Pappous said he had started his workday a few hours earlier than usual, at 6 a.m., on orders from his employer.
“With this kind of heat, it would be too risky otherwise,” said the 46-year-old as he tinkered with an electricity meter near Athens’s central Syntagma Square.
But for staff working over the grill in Greece’s already-buzzing tourist Monastiraki district, there was no room for respite.
“We have no choice, it’s the start of the tourist season,” said kebab store owner Elisavet Robou. “We have air conditioning and fans, and staff are allowed to take breaks, but unfortunately the climate crisis is here.
“Heat waves came earlier this year and the season will be difficult,” she said.
An air-conditioned hall has been opened at Syntagma metro station in central Athens to give people somewhere to shelter from the heat, the public transport authority said.
Greece’s Red Cross said it had handed out some 12,000 bottles of water in the center of the capital and at the Acropolis.
In Greece’s second city Thessaloniki, teachers and pupils said annual school exams were held under difficult conditions.
“There was no air conditioning in any of the rooms so we used fans, some of which the teachers brought from their own homes,” said Andreas Karagiannis, a 52-year-old mathematician and examiner.
“Exams should not have been held under these conditions,” said 17-yearold pupil Yiannis Theodoridis.
The Acropolis was forced to close in July last year during a two-week heat wave that was unprecedented in its duration.
It was followed by fires that according to the National Observatory of Athens consumed nearly 175,000 hectares of forest and farmland.
A record number of almost 4 million visitors flocked to the Acropolis last year, with its popularity boosted in part due to tourists arriving on cruise ships calling in at the nearby port of Piraeus.