With temperatures exceeding 40 degrees in Athens and the Peloponnese, hundreds of organised beaches opened for the public in Greece.

Amid the hottest May the country has seen in over 150 years and a cloud of Saharan dust, beaches resumed operations under strict health and safety guidelines due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Sun-baskers were required to respect distancing rules, which even stipulated how far umbrellas must be kept apart.

No more than 40 people were allowed per 1,000 square meters (10,750 sq ft), while umbrella poles had to be four meters (13 ft) apart, with canopies no closer than one meter, according to a government-issued manual, complete with diagram.

Many braved the sweltering heat to go to parks or attempt to secure a spot near the water keeping a 2 metre distance from each other but more decided to stay at home blasting the air-condition or the fan.

Speaking to state broadcaster ERT on Friday, University of Crete Professor Nikos Michalopoulos, who is also head of the NOA’s (National Observatory of Athens) Institute for Research and Sustainable Development, said that “the last time Greece saw temperatures reach the 40C mark at this time of year was in 2017, when the Peloponnesian city of Argos hit 40.2 Celsius on 13 May, and in 1969, when the daytime high in the central Greek city of Larissa reached exactly 40 Celsius on 30 May. Lamia came close with 39.6 degrees Celsius on 23 May, 1973, and Hania in Crete with 39C on 25 May 25, 1994”.

“While warm weather is not unusual in May, temperatures above 35 Celsius, and especially in the middle of the month, are quite rare. He also said that if forecasts for temperatures as high as 41 Celsius this weekend are proven correct, Greece may experience the worst mid-May heatwave on record in 150 years,” Michalopoulos said.

The NOA, he told Kathimerini, has the oldest weather station in Greece at its historic facility in the central Athens district of Thiseio, where “data for the last 150 years… show that the highest temperatures during May were recorded in the last 10 days of the month and never surpassed 37 degrees Celsius.”

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