Athens Greece

Athens, Greece is located in the southern part of Europe and juts out into the Mediterranean Sea between the southern end of Italy and the western end of Turkey. The city has a unique landscape of hills and mountains which fall to the Mediterranean Sea. Some of the most famous landmarks of Athens are the ancient Acropolis and the Parthenon. Athens is the capital of Greece. Between 1981 when Greece joined the European Union, and 2004 when Athens hosted the summer Olympic games, Athens grew to become a modern cosmopolitan metropolis, a center of economic, financial, industrial, political and cultural life.

Athens, Greece has a Mediterranean climate. The summers are hot and dry, with clear, cloudless skies. The average annual temperature in Athens is about 63° F. The extremes range from a normal low of 31° F in January to a normal high off 99° F in July and at times even higher in August. The average rainfall of 1.25 inches. In June through September Athens only gets less than 1/2 inch of rain.

Athens has a Mediterranean climate and

its vegetation reflects a sclerophyll biom

e adapted to survival through regular long summer droughts. The shrubs and trees in such a biome have low branches, thick bark and leaves that resist water loss through transpiration. Outside the city the landscape may appear brown and dry much of the year, however the fertile soil provides for a rich diversity of wildflower from anemones and heliotropes to cacti and olive trees. Of course, Athens is a city with a metropolitan population of around 3.7 million. Much of the city is covered with concrete and many of the older areas either have no natural vegetation or may have vegetation that is cultivated and may not be natural. Athenians love flowers however, and everywhere in the summer the visitor will see bougainvillea, oleander and a myri

ad of other exotic colorful flowers. In recent years the city has been making an effort to add green space.

On August 24,2009 a massive

forest fire

began bu

rning just outside the northern border of Athens. According to the European Commission's European Forest Fire Information System 51,890 acres of pine forest, olive grove, brush and farmland, were destroyed. Greek officials say 150 homes were also damaged. Officials have not said what started the fires. Each year alone hundreds of forest fires blaze over Greece.

The meltemi is an annual midsummer wind that blows across the Aegean Sea southwest out of Turkey. Usually they blow strongest in the afternoon and die down at night but they can blow for days without a break. Since the winds blow from north to south they can make sailing problematic as it's easy to sail in southerly directions but beating back north against often 30-50 knot winds and strong seas is at best tedious and can be dangerous. Athenians and people who live in the Aegean islands welcome the dry cool breeze but north-facing beaches can be unpleasant if sand is blowing in the strong winds. Two summers ago I was sailing in the northern Cyclades and had personal experience with the meltemi.