July and August are well known in Greece for their cooler northern winds, called ”Meltemia”. These winds, especially in the Aegean Sea, offer lower pleasant temperatures on the Greek islands, while the mainland of the country suffers from heatwaves.
This might soon become a case of the past, some scientists warn, as they came across something unusual that happened in July 2018.
The surface temperature of the Aegean Sea was considerably higher than that of the Ionian. This is a very rare occurrence, since the Ionian doesn’t normally benefit from the cooler ”Meltemi” winds, and its surface temperature is usually much higher than that of the Aegean, during July and August.
This July though, the surface temperature of the Sea in the Aegean rose to 27°C (80 degrees Fahrenheit), that is 2 degrees Celsius higher than the average between 2008 and 2017.
The “Meltemi” winds last month were the second least powerful since 2009, when scientists began keeping records about this wind of the Aegean Sea.