Unseasonable heat wave brings record temperatures

The high temperatures experienced by many parts of the country in the past few days reached a peak on Sunday, with records being set in Crete generally and the Chania area in particular. Today (17th March) they have already dropped by some 10 degrees. with a further drop of up to 10 degrees forecast for some parts of the country. An article posted on the website of meteo.gr – the weather channel of the National Observatory of Athens, reveals the record temperatures experienced yesterday and compares them with previous similar phenomena:

On Sunday 16/03/2025 the unseasonable heat wave which has been affecting the country for the past 5 days reached a peak, with record temperatures even exceeding 33o C. The highest maximum temperature on Sunday 16/03 was recorded by the weather station at Sisi in Lasithi, at 33.7o C. This is a new record for the month of March for the network of automatic weather stations of meteo.gr/The National Observatory of Athens, which have been operating continuously from 2006. The average maximum temperature throughout the country varied between 8 and 10o C above the seasonal average (recorded values 2010-2019) for the second day in succession. In addition the maximum temperature exceeded 25o C in 190 of the 532 weather stations currently operating and exceeded 30o C in 21 stations.

Maximum temperatures on 16th March
Fig. 1. Maximum temperatures up to 17:10 on Sunday 16/03, and the 8 highest maximum temperatures from the network of 532 meteorological stations of meteo.gr/National Observatory of Athens.

The very high maximum temperatures experienced over the past 5 days (12-16/03/2025) were records for the month of March in many areas. The map below shows the 145 areas of Greece where the maximum temperature over the past 5 days constitutes a new record for the month. The locations were selected from the network of automatic weather stations of meteo.gr/National Observatory of Athens with at least 10 years’ uninterrupted operation. One hundred and forty-five stations registered record temperatures for the month of March, out of the 275 which have been operating continuously since 2016.

Location of maximum temperatures
Fig. 2. Areas where new maximum temperature records were set for the month of March (up to 16/03/25) from the network of automatic weather stations of meteo.gr/National Observatory of Athens with at least 10 years’ uninterrupted operation.

Finally, the table below shows the highest temperatures recorded from similar events for the month of March from 1952 to 2025 (up to 16/03) from stations of the National Meteorological Service (NMS) and the network of automatic weather stations of meteo.gr/National Observatory of Athens (NOA). As shown in the table, the country had experienced similar high temperatures in the last week of March in 1952, 2001 and 2024. However, this year is the first time in the historical records that such high temperatures have been registered in the first 2-3 weeks of the month.

Historical temperature records
Fig. 3. The highest temperatures recorded in the country from 1952 to 2025 (up to 16/03) for the month of March from stations of the National Meteorological Service and the National Observatory of Athens/meteo.gr.
 

(www.meteo.gr. All diagrams from meteo.gr, our translation of labels.)