Early heatwave in the Aegean Sea region

The first heatwave of the summer season came unusually early for the Aegean Sea region during the weekend 15-16 June. At night, temperatures were typically above +30°C, and reached well above +40 °C during the day. The highest temperatures were recorded in Rhodes, Crete and Milos. These heatwave events are often caused by a so-called heat dome, a broad area of high pressure that diverts clouds and traps dry air inside. In the case of the ongoing heatwave, warm air advancing from North Africa further increases the heat, leading to potentially dangerous conditions.

This scene is a Sentinel-3 Land Surface Temperature image from 15 June 2024. It is created by combining the brightness temperatures from the SLSTR sensor with surface emissivity values based on land cover from a simple classification of OLCI sensor data. Black areas are around 20°C while white areas are above 45°C. The satellite passes over at approximately 10:00 Mean Local Solar Time, so daily peak temperatures can be significantly hotter than the values shown on this image.