Despite winter looming, Cyprus is still bathing in summer-like weather as maximum temperatures on Monday reached a whopping 36 degrees Celsius, 10 degrees higher than average for the season.
This month is well on its way to becoming the hottest October on record as temperatures have stayed well above average throughout the month with a scorching 40°C on 7 October.
Temperatures on 7 October came dangerously close to beating the previous record of 40.6°C recorded on both 2 and 3 October 1943.
It was the first time the Met Office had issued an extreme heat warning for an October day.
The warm weather will continue over the next few days before dipping a few degrees on Thursday.
“Cyprus will definitely be slightly cooler from Thursday, but temperatures will remain around 30°C, well above the average 26°C for the season,” a Met Office official told the Financial Mirror.
He noted that Cyprus weather over the past few months has significantly deviated from seasonal norms, breaking every record with the first few days of October being well above the average maximum of 31°C for the season.
“This continued throughout the month with temperatures well above normal in the upcoming days, putting the month on course to becoming the hottest October on record,” he said.
“It is an unusual phenomenon for the season. Taking into consideration that October’s first 10 days were record-high temperatures, coming after the three previous months marked the highest temperatures on record, the phenomena should be looked through the scope of climate change”.
September, apart from marking the hottest day recorded in Cyprus with a temperature of 46.2°C in Nicosia on 4 September, it also had the highest average temperatures for that month.
The average daily maximum temperature for September was 38.2°C, the previous highest average recorded in 2018 was 36.3°C.
Cyprus had already witnessed its hottest July and August on record.
In July, Cyprus saw daily maximum temperatures reaching or exceeding 40 degrees Celsius more times (17) than in any other July since 1983, and the second hottest day on record at 44.6°C.
