After 15 days of extreme weather phenomena and 10 days with more than 600 fires, this was the first day that Greece was not in a state of red alert, Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said during a press conference on Friday. Kikilias spoke of a “difficult …

Wildfires in Greece abated on Friday after burning for nearly two weeks but emergency services worked to prevent new flare-ups in the central part of the country, where people had fled massive explosions at an ammunition depot the day before. The blazes, fanned by rising temperatures and strong winds, have …

Wildfires in Greece released a record 1 megaton of carbon emissions between July 1 and July 25, 2023, the EU Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service said. That was nearly double the previous July 2007 record, with the smoke plumes fouling air quality in regions downwind. The intense wildfires burning in Greece …

A total of 594 fires broke out in Greece in 10 days, under heatwave conditions and with high-velocity winds, Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said on Wednesday. Of the 594 fires, 571 were put out before they spread. Five of them spread extensively to Dervenochoria, Corfu, Rhodes, …

It was short after 11 a.m. on Tuesday, July 25, when residents of Loutses in the north of the island of Corfu received a message to evacuate their village. “If you are in the Louches area, evacuate now to Arachavi. Forest fire in your area. You are following the instructions …

Greece’s National Meteorological Service EMY issued an Emergency Bulletin of Dangerous Weather Phenomena for the next days, Tuesday to Thursday, July 25-27, 2023. The warning refers to the third wave of heatwave CLEON that has been striking Greece on and off since July 12. The prolonged heatwave been plaguing Greeks …

Greece’s Civil Protection has issued an emergency bulletin warning of Extreme Fire Risk in 5 regions and Very High Fire Risk  for another 13 regions on Tuesday, July 25, 2023. According to the Fire Risk Prediction Map issued by the General Secretariat of Civil Protection of the Ministry of Climate …

“Greece wants to send abroad a clear message of safety, that the visitors’ safety comes first,” Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni told international media after she landed on the island of Rhodes on Sunday. Aim of her delayed visit was apparently to deal with the crisis in the tourism industry following …

The Greek government has accepted an offer of help from Polish firefighters specializing in wildfires. Poland ’s State Fire Service commander announced that 149 firefighters and 49 vehicles are set to take off from Kraków on Wednesday. Poland will send firefighters to help it cope with wildfires burning in multiple …

A Greek Coast Guard vessel fired warning shots to stop a speedboat carrying migrants  from Turkey to the island of Rhodes. The speedboat eventually stopped, coast guards rescued the 10 migrants on board and arrested the 43-year-old human trafficker. Nobody was hurt from the warning shots. The incident reportedly took …

With temperatures in Greece reaching over 40 degrees Celsius and a prolonged dry weather, the Civil Protection issued a wildfires hazard warning for Saturday, July 15, 2023. According to the fire hazard prediction map published by the Civil Protection Agency, five regions are considered to be at very high risk …

A total of 13 Greek beaches lost the Blue Flags awarded by the International Blue Flag Environmental Education, Information and Awareness Program 2023. The Blue Flags were removed because the beaches did not organize according to the criteria of the Program. It should be recalled that with 617 Blue Flag …

Following citizens complaints and often also outrage over the high ferry prices, the government finally decided to take action and a state minister met on Tuesday with shipping companies in an effort to convince them to lower prices. According to daily ethnos.gr, ticket prices increased by 25%-30% this summer when …

Drownings in Greece remain at high rates with main reason being that swimmers do not follow safety instructions. A 47-year-old Italian man, a tourist, lost his life while he was swimming at a beach of Herakleio, while a 12-year-old boy collapsed during swimming at a Rethymno beach. Both incidents took …

Tourists are turning their back on Greece’s most famous destinations, the islands of Mykonos and Santorini due to exorbitant prices as they seek “value for money.” Mykonos and Santorini have seen a significant drop in tourist traffic, with visitors who have arrived on the islands describing their experience, noting that …

Greece’s ambassador in Paris has complained to the publishers of newspaper Le Monde after the daily republished a map of the Turkish election results that showed a number of Greek islands as Turkish territory. The map purports that the Greek islands of Chios, Samos, Ikaria, Kos, Ios, Amorgos and Rhodes …

Greece’s Supreme Court has sent a memo to prosecutors across the country informing them that “the law does not recognize private beaches.” “The law does not recognize ‘private’ beaches!” the Supreme Court memo stressed, adding that any attempt to block public access – which is protected by the Greek Constitution …

With fireworks, crackers, the famous racket-war of Chios and a short visit to the church, Greeks celebrated  the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, the loud fest left eight people injured, among them four children, aged 7-14. More and more people are now calling for the end of the custom. The …

Nektarios Santorinios, the SYRIZA MP for the Dodecanese islands and former deputy minister for shipping, has died. He was 50 years old. Santorinios died of cancer in a hospital on his native Rhodes, in the southeastern Aegean, according to an announcement on Monday. The Greek Parliament held a minute of …

“We still don’t know if the 7.7 Richter earthquake that hit southern Turkey on Monday morning was the main one,” professor and president of the Greek Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization, Efthymios Lekkas, told the state-run news agency amna. “It’s a very big earthquake and its consequences will be multiple,” …