Meteorological Analysis of the 2021 Extreme Wildfires in Greece: Lessons Learned and Implications for Early Warning of the Potential for Pyroconvection

The 2021 fire season in Greece was the worst of past 13 years, resulting more than 130,000 ha burnt area, with about 70% consumed by five wildfires that ignited and spread early August. Common to these occurrence violent pyroconvection. This work presents a meteorological analysis this outbreak extreme pyroconvective wildfires. Our shows dry warm antecedent weather preconditioned fuels fire-affected areas, creating environment alone could effectively support intense wildfire activity. Analysis surface conditions revealed ignition most active all coincided adverse since beginning season. Further, atmospheric conducive pyroconvection, as instability gradually increased amid breakdown an upper-air ridge ahead approaching long-wave trough. In summary, we highlight severity extent Greek were not surprising considering potential for period when they ignited. Continuous monitoring large- local-scale promote behavior is imperative improving Greece’s capacity managing