ATHENS, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Greece was in the grip of the first heat wave of this summer on Saturday, which according to local meteorologists will be recorded as the worse of the past decade.
Temperatures have soared since Thursday with the thermometers showing up to 42 degrees Celsius on Friday and Saturday in Athens and many parts of the mainland, according to the national meteorological agency EMY.
Experts forecast that on Sunday the mercury will hit 43 degrees Celsius before receding to 35 degrees Celsius on Monday, EMY's Director Antonis Lalos told the Greek national news agency AMNA.
According to EMY scientists, the heat wave testing the country this week is the worse since the summer of 2007 when the temperature had hit 46.5 degrees Celsius at the city of Elefsina, 20 kilometers southwest of Athens.
So far no problems have been reported to authorities who have been put on alert to deal with the heat wave.
The situation is more difficult in urban centers like Athens due to the high ozone levels recorded on Friday and Saturday.
The Health ministry and health experts advised people with health issues and those who belong to vulnerable groups, such as the elderly and children, to take caution and avoid exposure to the heat and sun.
With the thermometer reaching as high as 50 degrees Celsius under the scorching sun at the entrance of a central Athens hospital and 44 degrees Celsius on the screens of mobile phones on Syntagma square, those out in the open seek ways to cool off.
Tourists taking photographs of the Presidential Guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in front of the Greek parliament shield their heads with towels and use Syntagma square's fountain to cool off, while many locals have hit the nearby beaches.
"Whenever we can, we come here,mainly in weekends. (At home) with the air condition, there is no relief. We can't sleep," Nikos A., an elderly Athenian, told Xinhua on Saturday at Votsalakia (Pebbles) beach.
"It is very difficult. I stay at home until five in the afternoon and then I come here. By the sea is ok. We play cards and when I get uncomfortable, I take a dive. That's it," Yannis K. added.
Eddie T., a migrant working in Greece, also seeks relief at Votsalakia beach near Athens.
"Whenever I can leave work, we take a break for a while here, because the situation is difficult... I hope that it will last only for a few days and no more, because I do not know what will happen," he said.
According to a recent survey by the National Observatory of Athens summers in Greece in the past 16 years are hotter than the average highs recorded in the period 1961-1990 by up to three degrees Celsius.
