July 31, 2023
FEATURED, weather
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The very high temperatures in the recent 2-week heatwave, in addition to the record temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius set at the meteorological stations and the stress they caused to the largest part of the population, also significantly affected the temperature on the surface of the Greek seas by as much as 5 degrees..
Processing satellite data by the Meteo. service of the National Observatory of Athens, have shown:
- the large increase of 4 to 5°C in the South Ionian Sea
- the increase of 3 to 4°C in the Northwest Aegean Sea
- the small increase of 1 to 2 °C in the Central Aegean and the almost zero difference and small drop in temperature in the Eastern Aegean
Figure 1 shows the differences in sea surface temperature before (July 5) and after the heat wave (July 27, 2023). Red shades show the increase and blue ones the decrease of the temperature on the surface of the Greek seas, as measured on July 27, compared to the corresponding temperature on July 5, 2023. The diagram shows:
Figure 1. Sea surface temperature difference between July 27 and July 5, 2023, as measured by satellite and processed by the Meteo.gr unit of the National Observatory of Athens. Increases and decreases in sea surface temperature are shown in red shades.
Especially for the South Ionian region, on Thursday 27/07 the sea surface temperature was calculated above 30 °C, which is a very high value for the season as the increase was 4-5 degrees Celsius (Figure 2). Conversely, the lowest sea surface temperatures, as distinguished in Figure 2, were measured in the Eastern Aegean region (~ 24 °C).
source: meteo.gr
PS I heard of people who dared to the sea in Attica during the heatwave that they sensed a “sea like a soup” even early in the morning.