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A tourist protects herself from the sun at the Parthenon in Athens (archive image)
Photo: Alkis Konstantinidis / dpa
Extreme weather in large parts of Europe: While the north-west of the continent is still hit by heavy rain and storms, a heat wave is looming in the south-east.
Meteorologists warn of critical consequences.
From Tuesday on, temperatures in Greece should rise to 44 degrees during the day and not fall below 30 degrees at night.
Similar temperatures have been announced for Turkey, the Balkans and Italy.
The Greek weather service and civil defense are already issuing warnings because the heat is expected to last until August 8, which is an unusually long time.
If the temperatures do not drop at night, it is extremely stressful for the human body because it cannot recover.
The longer the extreme weather lasts, the more dangerous it is to health.
Because strong winds are also expected and it has been dry for weeks, the fire could spread quickly.
You can currently see what that might look like in France, Spain and Sardinia: there are currently widespread fires.
Greece has bad memories of extreme heat waves.
In 1987, an estimated 4,000 people died in a similar period of heat.
Back then there were only a few air conditioning systems, and many city apartments became a death trap, especially for the elderly.
Another heat wave with strong winds burned large areas on the Peloponnese peninsula in 2007, killing dozens of people.
Now it is feared that the announced wave could surpass all of that.
zob / dpa