Heat and humidity to stretch into August

By Rita Demetriou

THERE IS to be no let up in the stifling heat wave that has besieged Cyprus in recent weeks.

The Meteorological Service yesterday forecast that high temperatures and humidity would continue over the next few days and into August.

Meteorological department director, Cleanthos Pegiotis, told the Cyprus Mail it was not just the soaring temperatures that were putting us into a sweat, but the high relative humidity.

“The discomfort that people feel at this time is due to the high relative humidity, which makes the perceived temperature too high,” Pegiotis said.

He added that the normal relative humidity for the end of July in Nicosia was 50 per cent in the morning and 28 to 30 per cent at midday. But over the last few days, humidity levels have reached 72 per cent in the morning and anything from 30 to 40 per cent at lunchtime.

The Meteorological Service says such high levels of humidity, combined with inland temperatures of 40 C and over (the normal temperature is usually 37 C), occur approximately once every five years.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.