“Crystal-clear waters, constant sunshine, explosive local flavors and sublime sunsets”: so promised the “Endless Greek Summer,” Greece’s official 2020 campaign to promote tourism. A year and an environmental disaster later, everyone is asking where this summer went — and who actually enjoyed it.

According to a poll for the Ιnstitute of Retail Consumer Goods (IELKA), only one in three Greeks said they would take a vacation in 2021, with many unable to do so given their dire financial situation. Those who stayed in the cities had to endure the heat, the toxic atmosphere, the lack of quality creative activities for children, and even power cuts, with the supply exhausted by both excessive use and extreme weather.

In this context, the promise of an “endless Greek summer” sounds like something from a bygone era. But from a climate perspective, it also sounds like a threat. For this summer, Greece was hit by repeated heat waves, the country’s worst in over three decades. Temperatures soared to a record-breaking 47 degrees Celsius (around 116 degrees Fahrenheit). Extreme heat conditions facilitated rampaging wildfires which destroyed a hundred twenty hectares of land — ten times the average across the last decade.