Storm warnings are in place across Europe, from northern Greece to Poland

Storm warnings are in effect for an area of ​​Europe, from Poland and Hungary to Italy and Greece.

Orange warnings are in place for northern Greece as summer heat gives way to violent storms and the risk of flooding. Serbia and Kosovo face similar alerts, while much of Italy is under a yellow storm warning.

Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of heat waves, triggering extreme weather events from violent storms to wildfires. As the Mediterranean warms – hitting a record average temperature last week – storms are turbo-charging across the region.

Further south in Greece, Athens and the surrounding Attica region still face a high fire risk, along with the Peloponnese and the islands of Rhodes, Crete and Lesvos. There were 32 fires in the 24 hours to 6.30pm on Tuesday.

Although it was the worst fire season in two decades in terms of outbreaks, there was only one major fire – on the outskirts of the capital early last week – after the deployment of drones and cameras sped up response times.

Now the Greek government is considering drawing up a new fire prevention and reforestation plan for Attica next month. It will also address the risk of flooding on land burned by bushfires.

“Technology has helped us a lot,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said after meeting with mayors of Attica areas affected by last week’s fire. “We’re already building a technology infrastructure that will allow us to locate fires very quickly and adopt the first-strike dogma much more aggressively than we have in the past.”

Heat warnings are still in place across southern Spain, with temperatures reaching 40C (104F) on Wednesday.

There is also a yellow warning for heavy rain in western Scotland, while the Gironde in south-west France is on flood alert.

⚠️ Yellow Weather Warning UPDATED 📷
Heavy rain in west Scotland
Valid from 11:00 on Wednesday until 08:00 on Thursday
Latest info 👉 https://t.co/QwDLMfRBfs
Stay #Aware of the weather⚠️ pic.twitter.com/pCigWi4vAN

— Met Office (@metoffice) August 21, 2024

Photo: Lightning strikes over Nice, France on August 14, 2024. Photo credit: Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images

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Windstorm in Europe