Greece is forecast to experience some of its highest January temperatures of the last 50 years, the meteo weather service of the National Observatory of Athens said on Friday.
Temperatures will be as much as 15 degrees Celsius higher than normal for this time of year.
They would be matched only by those that occurred on January 29, 1987 (over 25 C in southern Greece and 22.6 C in Athens), and on January 1, 2010 — which were the hottest on record since measurements began in the 19th century, reaching as high as 30.4 C on the island of Crete.
Greece is expected to be among the countries of the central and eastern Mediterranean that will see unusually warm weather over the coming weekend.
The warm spell will be part of a pattern of extreme weather phenomena that will divide Europe on January 9 and 10, as cold air masses spread to unusually low latitudes over Western Europe and northwest Africa, pushing very warm air masses eastward, toward Greece.
This is expected to bring heavy snow to the Iberian Peninsula and the Northern Balkans, as well as heavy rains in southern Spain, Morocco and the Western Balkans, possibly resulting in flash flooding.
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