An exceptionally dry, rain-starved summer left deep scars across Cyprus, culminating in the deadly July wildfire in the Limassol highlands. Speaking to Politis, Dr Filippos Tymvios, Director of the Cyprus Department of Meteorology, and Dr Panos Hadjinicolaou, Associate Professor at the Cyprus Institute’s Energy, Environment and Water Research Center, warn that Cyprus sits in a climate-change hot spot where warming unfolds faster than the global average. Three decades of mounting signals, they say, should have driven a state response robust enough to close the gaps in civil-protection and environmental-management systems that this summer’s fire so painfully exposed.
Heat vs. drought: What set 2025 apart
This was not Cyprus’s hottest summer on record, but it was among the driest, with prolonged rain deficits and parched soils priming the landscape for fire spread. “In terms of temperature, 2025 ranks as the 7th worst year since 1901,” Dr Tymvios noted, clarifying that 2024 featured longer spells of extreme heat “beyond the limit,” whereas 2025’s standout feature was extended atmospheric dryness. That dryness, coupled with bursts of very high temperatures, above 45°C in some localities for shorter windows, created ideal fire weather, as seen in July’s lethal blaze.
According to Dr Hadjinicolaou, July 2025 delivered repeated heat episodes, with 42-44°C recorded in inland areas and 32-35°C in the mountains at the peak (24-27 July). It was the 6th warmest July of the past decade, not the hottest overall month, but punctuated by days “well above normal,” at times exceeding 40°C.
The weather is changing, so are the winds
Warming is reshaping the weather systems that govern Cyprus. This winter’s systems were milder and brought fewer rains, Dr Tymvios said. At the same time, sharper transitions are producing strong winds that are not necessarily cold, like last Friday’s dry, hazy easterlies, loaded with dust from their source regions. In winter, by contrast, intrusions of cold air mixing with local warmth can trigger thunderstorms and powerful gusts.
Europe’s wider picture
Across Europe, summer 2025 was the fourth warmest since systematic records began in the mid-19th century, Dr Hadjinicolaou noted. Highlights from the continent underline the trend:
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Spain endured the most intense heatwave in its observed history.
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Turkey touched 50.5°C, a national high.
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Finland saw 30°C persist for three straight weeks.
Health impacts are real and rising
Heat carries a human toll. A rapid UK-led analysis estimates about 24 heat-related deaths across 854 European cities and urban areas during summer 2025, with climate change implicated in 68% of those fatalities, Dr Hadjinicolaou said. At the Cyprus Institute’s CARE-C Centre of Excellence, researchers are tracking how heatwaves are evolving over time, the dynamics driving them, and their additive effect on urban heat stress, public health, and energy demand.
The policy gap: From warnings to preparedness
For experts, this summer should harden resolve: prevention, readiness, and rapid response need to match the speed of climate change. That means fully resourcing fire-prevention and suppression, tightening land-management and early-warning systems, and building heat-health action plans that protect the most vulnerable, before the next long, dry summer arrives.