The Greek culture ministry said the world-renowned site would be shut till 5:00 pm (1400 GMT) "for the safety of workers and visitors, owing to high temperatures."
The four-day heatwave confirmed by meteorologists began Sunday is the second to grip Greece since late June.
Temperatures are expected to reach 42 Celsius (107.6 Fahrenheit) on Tuesday, with a maximum of 38 Celsius in Athens.
Similar temperatures are expected on Wednesday.
To protect outdoor workers, the labour ministry has decreed a work stoppage from 12:00 to 5:00 pm in various parts of the country, including several islands.
The stoppage mainly affects construction work and delivery riders.
"Days with a heatwave make my job more difficult," cycle-riding courier Michalis Keskinidis told AFP.
"We drink a lot of water to protect ourselves from the heat, combined with electrolytes, and take breaks whenever possible," the 43-year-old said.
The 2,500-year-old Acropolis, built on a rock overlooking the capital that offers little shade, draws tens of thousands of visitors daily.
Last year it recorded some 4.5 million visitors, an increase of over 15 percent compared to 2023.
Officials had been forced to order similar shutdowns in the past two years in heatwave conditions.
- Risk of fire, storms -
The Greek civil protection authority has warned of high fire risk in the greater Athens area, in central Greece and the Peloponnese peninsula.
Greece's fire department has been dealing with up to 50 fires daily, the head of the Greek fire service officers' union Constantinos Tsigkas told state TV ERT.
Elsewhere, Serbia's hydrometeorological service RMHZ warned that weather conditions could fuel more fires, after 620 fires were recorded Monday.
But there are also thunderstorms expected in Serbia's northern Vojvodina region, as well as in western and central areas.
RHMZ has also warned of the possibility of hail and hurricane-force gusts of wind.
Croatia has already felt the impact of storms since Monday, with several of the country's regions affected.
Two people were injured and hospitalised in Vinkovci after a storm knocked down a power line on a family house near the eastern town, police said.
The authorities said they had taken dozens of calls over wind-related emergencies including trees blocking roads, damaged roofs and power failures.
On Tuesday, heavy rain and gale-force winds flooded roads, knocked down trees and caused power outages at the Croatian port town of Split, the state-run HRT broadcaster reported.
At the town's port, a ferry broke its moorings and hit a catamaran and a tourist excursion boat, sinking the latter.
There was similar trouble further north, with storms raging in Hungary and Slovakia.
In Budapest, strong winds damaged roofs, felled trees onto roads and downed power lines on Monday, with the national meteorological service HungaroMet measuring winds up to 137 kilometres (85 miles) per hour locally.
Rail traffic was severely disrupted across Hungary with full restoration of services potentially requiring weeks, according to Construction and Transport Minister Janos Lazar.
In Slovakia, gale-force winds caused power outages and blew off the roof of a block of flats in the eastern town of Gelnica and fallen trees disrupted road and railway transport across the region.
The country's weather service SHMU has issued a storm warning with heavy rain, wind and hail for Tuesday, mainly for central and eastern Slovakia.
As heatwaves intensify, Morocco ups effort to warn residents
Casablanca, Morocco (AFP) July 8, 2025 -
Lhoussaine Youabd knows nearly all the languages spoken in Morocco, a useful skill in his role warning the population of growing climate-related risks in the country braving increasingly common heatwaves.
"Every time a weather alert is issued, I go on the media to warn Moroccans," Youabd, 52, a meteorological engineer at the national weather service, told AFP.
This has been his mission for the past decade, going on TV and radio stations to get the message across to as many Moroccans as possible, particularly in remote rural areas.
Youabd said villagers are "happy that we speak their language" -- dialects of colloquial Arabic or those used by the Amazigh -- when issuing updates, warnings and recommendations that could be life-saving.
The General Directorate of Meteorology (DGM) has recently declared 2024 Morocco's hottest year on record while registering an average rainfall deficit of -24.7 percent, on the North African country's seventh straight year of drought.
In late June this year, as a deadly heatwave affected large areas of southern Europe -- across the Mediterranean from Morocco -- the DGM said several cities broke their temperature records for that month.
Displaying a weather forecast map mostly shaded in intense red, Meriem Alaouri, the interim head of the national weather service in Casablanca, said that the upcoming summer months are expected to be even hotter than usual.
Scientists say that recurring heatwaves are a clear marker of global warming and that they are set to become more frequent, longer and more intense.
Fuelled by human-driven climate change, 2024 was the warmest year on record globally -- and 2025 is projected to rank among the top three.
When extreme weather events hit, like heatwaves, storms or floods, Moroccan authorities issue colour-coded warning bulletins that are transmitted by the civil defence and media outlets.
Youabd said that in recent years, text messages are also used to alert local officials across the country, who can then notify residents in their area.
The DGM has also expanded its social media presence, using networks like Facebook and LinkedIn to get the message across, and a "Smart Alert" that would land directly in Moroccans' mobile phones is currently being developed, he said.
- No power -
Hicham Fenniri, director of the International Water Research Institute at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, said it was important to ensure local, regional and national leaders and decision-makers are well informed about climate risks.
In remote areas, connecting residents to the electricity grid is crucial to make sure they can "access information" and install air conditioning systems, he said.
Traditional houses "but remade using clean science and technology" can help reduce some effects of the intense heat, along with ensuring access to potable water to mitigate dehydration risks.
In 2024, authorities said that 5.4 percent of Moroccans living in rural areas did not have access to electricity, and 20.4 percent had no reliable source of clean water.
Ben Achir Chekroun, a 66-year-old pensioner from Harhoura, south of the capital Rabat, said that the weather alerts were easy to follow.
"We get the information either from the radio, on online media and in newspapers," he told AFP.
Loubna Rouhi, head physician at the local medical centre in Harhoura, said that in the scorching heat, it was recommended to stay in the shade and avoid going outside during the hottest hours, between 10 am and 4 pm, as well as wearing light clothes and staying hydrated.
The 48-year-old doctor said that she has used health ministry notices to help inform the population about the risks of extreme heat.
One recent campaign launched by the ministry aims to warn against scorpions and snakes, which are far more active in the heat.
Mohammed Esmaili, a senior health ministry official, said that a specialised medical kit has "helped significantly reduce mortality" linked to scorpion or snake bites, from 7.2 percent of cases in 2013 down to 1.2 percent.
Record-breaking temperatures in June around the world
Paris (AFP) July 7, 2025 -
From Nigeria to Japan, Pakistan to Spain, the month of June was the hottest ever recorded in 12 countries and was exceptionally warm in 26 other countries, according to AFP analysis of data from the European monitor Copernicus.
Some 790 million people around Europe, Asia and Africa experienced their hottest June to date. For the residents of 26 other states, including Britain, China, France, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia, the month of June was the second hottest on record.
Heatwaves are more frequent and intense because of global warming, experts say. Here is a roundup of the exceptional heat recorded in June:
- Europe: 3C above the norm -
An early summer heatwave scorched western and southern Europe at the end of June, bringing sweltering heat to the Paris region in France and parts of Belgium and the Netherlands that are not used to such temperatures.
Around 15 countries, including Switzerland, Italy, and every Balkan state, saw temperatures rise to three degrees Celsius above the June average between 1981 and 2010. Spain, Bosnia, and Montenegro had their hottest June to date.
- Asia-Pacific: record heats on land and at sea -
Japan also had its hottest June on record since data collection began in 1898, with record temperatures logged in 14 cities during a heatwave. The temperature of coastal waters was 1.2C higher than usual, tying with June 2024 for the highest since data collection began in 1982, the weather agency said on 1 July.
Japan's summer last year was already the joint hottest on record, equalling the level seen in 2023, followed by the warmest autumn since records began 126 years ago. Japan's beloved cherry trees are blooming earlier due to the warmer climate, or sometimes not fully blossoming because autumns and winters are not cold enough to trigger flowering, experts say.
South Korea and North Korea also experienced their warmest June since records began. Temperatures in both countries were 2C higher than the recorded average.
In China, 102 weather stations logged the hottest-ever June day, with some measuring temperatures above 40C, according to state media.
- Central Asia: hottest spring on record -
Temperatures soared to record highs for June in Pakistan, home to a population of 250 million, and in Tajikistan, which has 10 million people. The June records followed an exceptionally hot spring in Central Asia. Several countries including Pakistan and Tajikistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan experienced their warmest spring (April-June) ever recorded.
- Sub-Saharan Africa: almost as hot as 2024 -
In Nigeria, the world's sixth most populous country with 230 million people, temperatures rose to June 2024's record-breaking levels.
Other parts of central and eastern Africa were also exceptionally hot. June was the second hottest month on record after 2024 in the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.
In South Sudan, temperatures passed the normal June average by 2.1C, an exceptional deviation from the norm in a region of the world where temperatures tend to be more stable. The impoverished nation plagued by insecurity is ill-equipped to counter increasing environmental disasters and had already struggled with a devastating heatwave in March, typically the hottest month of the year. Students collapsing from the heat in the capital Juba prompted the government to close schools and order citizens to remain at home.
"Extreme weather and climate change impacts are hitting every single aspect of socio-economic development in Africa and exacerbating hunger, insecurity and displacement," warned the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in May.
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