German Weather Service: 2023 with record heat and lots of rain
This could make it the sixth wettest year on record, according to the weather service. All months were consistently too warm. The average temperature in 2023 reached 10.6 degrees Celsius for the first time and was therefore 2.4 degrees above the value of the internationally valid reference period from 1961 to 1990. Compared to the current - and already warmer - period from 1991 to 2020, the increase was 1.3 degrees. The second warmest years in Germany were also in the recent past: 2018 and 2022, each with an average of 10.5 degrees.
According to the weather service, the beginning of the year was already "record mild". September was then the warmest since records began. In October, the latest hot days since measurements began were recorded in the Upper Rhine Graben, with temperatures of over 30 degrees.
The approximately 958 liters of precipitation per square meter were over 20 percent more than in the reference period from 1961 to 1990 and also 20 percent more than in the period from 1991 to 2020. November was even the second wettest since 1881. According to the report, it rained a lot, especially along the Alps, in the Black Forest and in the Bergisches Land, and less in the north-east.
The sun shone for 1,764 hours, around 15 percent more than in the reference period. According to the EU climate change service Copernicus, 2023 will also be the warmest year ever globally. "We need to focus intensively on climate protection and adapt to the damage caused by extreme weather," said Fuchs.
The weather service also published its preliminary results for December on Friday. This was the 15th in a row with remarkably high temperatures and is expected to be one of the eight warmest Christmas months since 1881, as well as one of the wettest ten months since 1881 due to "remarkably high" amounts of precipitation.
With 114 liters of precipitation per square meter, it will be almost 63 percent more than in the reference period. According to the data, Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt recorded what was probably the wettest Christmas month since measurements began. Especially there, as well as in Thuringia and Saxony, there were waves of high water with major flooding in many places over the holidays.
The preliminary annual balance sheet is based on initial evaluations of the results from around 2000 measuring stations of the weather service; forecasts were used for the last three days of the year.
Read also:
- This will change in December
- Attacks on ships in the Red Sea: shipping companies avoid important trade route
- Houthi rebels want to launch further attacks despite international coalition
- USA forms military coalition against Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea
- The German Weather Service predicted that 2023 could potentially be the sixth wettest year on record, with record heat and excessive rainfall.
- With Germany experiencing record temperatures and lots of rain, the beginning of the measurement period in Offenbach saw unusually high temperatures.
- According to the German Weather Service, the Alps notably received a significant amount of rainfall during this record year.
- Tobias Fuchs, spokesperson for the German Weather Service, emphasized the need for intense climate protection measures and adaptation to extreme weather conditions.
- In 2023, with a record heat of 10.6 degrees Celsius and over 958 liters of precipitation per square meter, Germany set new temperature and precipitation records.
- With Germany averaging 1.3 degrees more warm than the period from 1991 to 2020, the record heat in 2023 is a cause for concern, according to environmentalists.
- The German Weather Service reported that the start of the measurement in 2023 saw the country's warmest September on record, with temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius in the Upper Rhine Graben.
- Despite the record heat and rain in Germany, certain regions, such as the north-east, experienced less precipitation compared to areas like the Alps, Black Forest, and Bergisches Land.
Source: www.stern.de
