Scientists are warning that Crete could also be at risk from wildfires like is being seen in Corfu and Rhodes as it is not unusual for this time of year.
Scientists are warning that “our landscapes are becoming more flammable” and that the effects of climate change are making wildfires more ferocious.
Professor Stefan Doerr, director of the Centre for Wildfire Research at Swansea University, said that islands such as Rhodes and Corfu have so much “flammable grass, shrub and forest vegetation” it is the perfect climate for fires to spread so quickly.
Professor Doerr said that as a result Crete which is a hugely popular tourist spot for holidaymakers meaning that they are very much at risk.
Read more related news:
Second Greek island evacuates tourists as wildfires rip through Corfu
Tourists heading to the Mediterranean should take the Greek wildfires as a ‘big warning’
Professor Doerr said that they are focussing on the ignition of the wildfires “distracts from the main issues” that our landscapes are no more flammable amid the growing extreme weather conditions caused by climate change due to the “insufficient management of vegetation.”
Dr Matthew Jones, a senior research fellow at the University of East Anglia’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research warned there has been a “dramatic increase” of regular hot-dry conditions.
Dr Jones warned what is making the wildfires even worse is because they are “exposed to maritime winds that are helping to fan the blaze.”
He added, “The hilliness of some of these islands also lends itself to rapid fire spread, because fires travel faster upslope than they do downslope or on flat ground.”
People who live in these countries and even Brits who either decide to live or holiday have to accept the level of risk they could be facing.
Dr Jones then warned that climate change is responsible for “the frequency of the weather conditions that enable fires like this to break out, and also to burn so intensely and synchronously across the Mediterranean.”
