If this year’s November is anything to go by, even tougher times lie ahead for the island, as environmental scientists once again exhaustingly sound alarm bells on the country’s downward spiral towards desertification, without dams empty, forest trees dying en masse and flowers blooming out of season in ecosystems shocked by weather crisis.
Temperatures to start with. From January to November, 67% of days, specifically 219 out of 328 were warmer than the seasonal average, as the need for air conditions will almost quadruple over the next few years, a rise estimated at 153%. According to experts, the island’s climate will become very much like that of dusty, polluted, humid Cairo.
Rain will be rare. And what’s more it will come at extreme intervals in a brief but destructive spell, bringing little benefit. Rainwater was 1.3 billon tonnes less in comparison to the last three decades, with a further 20% drop going back to the turn of the century.
‘The seasons have changed and that’s partly right’, said Institute of Cyprus Climate and Research Centre professor Panos Hadjinikolaou, adding that certain months get warmer.
Cyprus is overheating by 0.4 to 0.6 degrees per decade since 1981, with autumn rainfall dropping by 5 to 10 millimetres per decade.