Greece has been suffering from extreme heat for days.
There is hardly an end in sight.
In addition, forest fires broke out.
The government warns of power outages.
Athens - The scorching heat continues unabated in Greece.
On Monday and throughout the week, the weather department expects values around 44 degrees.
Because of the extreme drought and strong winds on the holiday island of Rhodes, a major fire that broke out on Sunday got out of control, as the fire brigade announced on Monday morning.
Greece: Forest fires on holiday island out of control
Hotel complexes on Rhodes have so far not been affected by the fire and the heavy smoke formation.
The civil service, however, ordered the evacuation of three villages in the west of the island's capital.
In large parts of the holiday island, the power went out temporarily on Sunday evening.
With the first light of day, fire-fighting planes and helicopters were used to contain the flames, as the state television (ERT) reported.
Greece warns of blackout
The Ministry of Energy called on all citizens not to set the air conditioning to very low temperatures.
“26 degrees and no more,” said the Ministry of Energy.
The performance of the country's energy system is being put to the test because of the prolonged heat and the air-conditioning systems running at full speed.
It was unclear when the heat would subside.
Some meteorologists feared the high temperatures could last up to two weeks.
A heat wave has hit the entire Mediterranean region.
Weather experts had warned of the scenario.
Historic heat wave in Greece - thousands of people lost their lives
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 few air conditioning systems and 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 overshadow all of this.
Turkey and Italy are fighting forest fires
For days, emergency services in Turkey have been fighting forest fires. Several villages in the Bodrum holiday region were evacuated on Sunday night.
(dpa)
* Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
