Fire meteorologist Theodoros Giannaros spoke on Open’s news bulletin, where he clarified that the situation is particularly difficult with the fire that started in Keratea and is burning everything in its path across the wider area. He emphasized that winds are not expected to weaken significantly during the night, while they are forecast to strengthen from morning.
Read: Keratea fire: 76-year-old found charred lived isolated without electricity and water since 2007
Giannaros on Attica fire: Very favorable conditions for it to spread
As Theodoros Giannaros noted, “from the moment the fire broke out, conditions were very favorable for it to spread at this pace and create the fronts it has created. That is, the wind guided it, the wind plays the main role in how it spreads and given the conditions that prevailed and we expected today, the speed with which the fire moved is not surprising – in quotes“.
Giannaros: In the morning the wind will pick up again, de-escalation from Monday
“The unfortunate thing is that during the night we expect a very small weakening of the winds, however we’re talking about winds that will drop to 4-5 Beaufort, which are very dangerous winds anyway. This means there is potential for the spread to continue, as long as it finds material to burn” Mr. Giannaros emphasized, adding:
“In the morning the wind will pick up, to 7 Beaufort, and will be maintained until late afternoon. These are very difficult conditions. The critical thing we need to understand is to avoid fire ignitions. We will have substantial de-escalation regarding the wind on Monday, however from then we expect a temperature rise“.
Watch what fire meteorologist Theodoros Giannaros said on Open:
