Country braces for hottest July weekend in 50 years as firefighters battle 79 forest blazes

The heatwave engulfing Greece is expected to be the longest in the country’s history, with temperatures forecast to reach a 50-year high for July this weekend.

Kostas Lagouvardos, the director of research at the Athens National Observatory, told ERT television: “According to the data, we will probably go through 16-17 days of a heatwave, which has never happened before in our country.” Greece defines a heatwave as a period when temperatures reach or exceed 39C (102F).