Greece braced for a new wave of soaring temperatures on Tuesday, as wildfires raged on several popular tourist islands, forcing mass evacuations. In the capital city of Athens the mercury is expected to soar to 41 degrees Celsius, and reach up to 44C in central Greece, according to the national weather forecaster EMY. Many regions of the country were on “red alert”, meaning there is an extreme risk of dangerous forest fires exacerbated by strong winds.
The very hot weather comes after a weekend of intense heat as thousands of locals and tourists fled forest fires on the Greek islands of Rhodes and Corfu, with the prime minister warning the heat-battered nation is “at war” with the flames. Authorities evacuated nearly 2,500 people from the Greek island of Corfu on Monday, after tens of thousands of people had already fled blazes on the island of Rhodes, with many frightened tourists scrambling to get home on evacuation flights.—AP
