UK tourists in Greece, Turkey, Cyprus warned 'this has never happened before'

UK tourists flying to Greece and Turkey have been warned "this has never happened before". British holidaymakers have been warned over a "history-making" heatwave sweeping the holiday hotspots, sending temperatures up to 43C.

The high temperatures have also been felt in Cyprus. Meteorologist Panos Giannopoulos told the Greek state television channel, ERT: “This heatwave will go down in history. In the 20th century, we never had a heatwave before June 19. We have had several in the 21st century, but none before June 15.”

In Turkey, temperatures have also soared to between 8 and 12 degrees above the norm for this time of year. The unseasonal heatwave, caused by southerly winds bringing heat and dust from North Africa, has prompted authorities to shut schools and nurseries, along with popular tourist attractions like the Acropolis in Athens.

READ MORE UK braced for 'first' 30C heatwave of year and it will last 72 hours

The Copernicus Climate Change Service’s (C3S) mid-range seasonal forecast (covering July, August and September) says that we may see extremes. “The latter part of the European summer is likely to be warmer than average everywhere (with above-normal chance of exceeding the 80th percentile of climatology for seasonal means), drier than average in the south and wetter than average in the far north,” they say.

Weather & Radar say: “We can say that July 2024 is looking above-average for much of Europe, particularly Spain, however that could just be a few days of hot weather that skew the average, followed by roughly around or below-average temperatures.”

CS3 said: “The June-initialised forecasts continue the signal seen in earlier forecasts for higher-than-average sea surface temperature in the next six months, in most ocean basins with the notable exception of regions in the equatorial Pacific and the Southern Ocean. The former is associated with the predicted likely development of La Niña conditions later in the year.”

“Sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic have been extremely high for a significant period of time, which has been influencing the weather we are getting. This will continue to affect temperatures and precipitation over Europe this summer,” Rosie Mammatt, a PHD expert at the University of Reading, says.