(Editor’s note: This is Pt. 2 of a two-part post about extreme heat in Greece. You can jump to Pt. 1 here.)
Last summer, Greece experienced some of its highest ever recorded temperatures (46 degrees Celcius/115 degrees Fahrenheit) and this summer has been hotter than Hades with freakish June heatwaves.
And we are only now at the end of July!
Scary.
Greece always had warm/hot summers, but in recent decades we have had more and more severely hot weather. This is not just the case in the Greek capital, Athens, which has very little greenery as compared to other European capitals. Even mountaintop villages in central and northern Greece, which are flanked by vast forests and which typically experienced warm summer days, but cool, almost cold, summer nights, are now feeling serious heat.
Few places to escape the heat
Our sunny nation needs to take the rising temperatures more seriously, both for the health of people and nature. No one wants to see our beautiful country become uninhabitable. Yet, you see more and more people unable to walk around without a parasol or spray bottle to cool down in the moment.
Greek school yards are often barren stretches of concrete with no green relief in sight so children in late spring and early autumn sometimes have to stay indoors during recess which is both a pity but also bad for school performance as they can’t get out their physical energy before afternoon lessons.
Public parks have few benches for people to sit under trees to cool off. Terrible air pollution makes everything worse and, this past spring, some controversial regulation was passed which alarmed environmentalists around the nation. The set of laws allow for trees which are deemed to be fire hazards or otherwise pose a danger in terms of climate change to be cut down and sold for biomass/biofuel processing. One can imagine how worrying this is in a place where oversight is not what it should be.
A friend of mine who does weekly hikes on Imittos mountain, just on the edge of a busy Athenian suburb, told me that she recently saw a huge crew chopping the lower branches off countless trees on one par of her usual trek. She questioned the workers and was told it was for fire safety reasons. But in what universe do flames stop halfway up a trees? And how does that even make a difference when embers often fly in the air air, spreading their destruction most vehemently during the high winds that accompany the worst of wildfires?
We need to think about how to make our cities and towns more livable in the longer and warmer summers we are experiencing. But what to do in the moment?
Tips for staying cool without the eco-unfriendly air con
solution:
It is highly recommended that you use air-con sparingly (both for your own health and that of the planet), so when at home you can do a bunch of environmentally-friendly things to cool yourself and your living space.
• Walk around the house with a cool wet washcloth around the nape of your neck. This is super simple but quite effective. It can really help to lay a wet washcloth on your chest or stomach at night when the heat has you tossing and turning.
• If things really heat up, wearing a wet t-shirt around the house can serve as portable air con!
• Midday showers are always good. Cool or even cold water is best, of course!
• You may have noticed that most Greek houses (and hotels) have shutters.. They are not only there for decoration or to keep out the early morning light, but also to ward off that heavy midday heat. Closed curtains and shutters will cool your living spaces.
• Fans galore. Two fans facing each other can create good circulation and, in the worst of the heat, pointing a fan outwards can remove some of that pesky hot air from your home. Try it!
• The classic Greek balcony is a wonderful thing for eating, socializing, pondering life and so on but it can also be used for cooler outdoor slumbers when the concrete Greek home feels like an oven after absorbing the Hellenic sunlight all day.
• If you get overheated, there are Red Cross teams out there that can help.
• Most museums and some shopping centers have air conditioning, so they make great places to cool off.
Checklist for going/being out midday during a Greek heatwave:
• Re-schedule your errand for early morning or late afternoon or evening if possible.
• Bring along a water bottle (or two!)
• Don’t forget your light-colored sun hat
• A light cotton shirt with long sleeves is a must for when
that UV index climbs high
• See No. 1!
Check out this website from #CoolAthens for more ideas
Eat and drink
Go light on the food, opting for lots of salad and fruit. Main dishes should be cool and light. Visit your local farmer’s market (found weekly in most areas of Greek towns and cities) and stock up on that classic cooling watermelon and those juicy Greek peaches.
Go heavy on the drink, but not of the alcoholic variety, as tempting as that might be when only a cold glass of dry white wine or an ice-cold foamy beer appeals. Alcohol can cause dehydration, which is of course the opposite of the effect you are after during hot weather.
Unfortunately caffeine and sugar can also dehydrate, so be sure to limit your intake of coffee, tea and sugary drinks. Water with a slice of cool Greek cucumber can be super-refreshing and tasty when you are tired of the plain H2O.
Cold infusions (such as mint or ginger), natural fruit juices, lemonade and good old ice water are just a few of the drinks you can and should indulge in when the temperatures soar.
Stay cool and consider a visit in the shoulder months of April, May, September or October when you can still enjoy the swimming but without the worst heat.
If you live here, get thee to the local pool or use fans and shutters to make your house a dungeon when necessary.
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Read more about Greece here in Dispatches archives.
A Pittsburgher by birth, Christina T. Hudson is also half Greek and has – so far – spent most of her life in Athens, the chaotic but captivating capital city of Greece.