Karlsruhe (dpa / lsw) – Just in time for the first week of summer holidays, Baden-Württemberg is hit by a new heat wave. For Wednesday, the German Weather Service expects temperatures of up to 29 degrees in the mountains and up to 36 degrees in the Breisgau and Kraichgau. On Thursday it could be 38 degrees on the Upper Rhine and at higher altitudes with a blue sky. The wind blows only weakly. Only on Friday afternoon could it get a little cooler with showers and some heavy thunderstorms.
Between the pronounced low “Heidelore” north of Scotland and the high “Normen” with a focus on Eastern Europe, very hot air is increasingly reaching Germany from the south, as the meteorologists explained on Tuesday. As the week progresses, the incoming air warms up. A strong heat load is to be expected.
In the absence of rain, the risk of forest fires increases again: in large parts of Baden-Württemberg, the two highest of the five warning levels apply on Wednesday. On Thursday the situation will worsen again before – after the expected showers – it should relax again towards the weekend. Some authorities, such as the Freudenstadt District Office, closed fire and barbecue areas in the forest for safety reasons. A spark is enough to start a fire.
There is low water on a good three out of four bodies of water in the southwest (77 percent). “The precipitation at the end of last week in the south-east of the country only led to a temporary, slight increase in water levels in the affected areas,” according to the Baden-Württemberg State Institute for the Environment in Karlsruhe. From January to July, only around 70 percent of the previously usual precipitation fell. In addition, the air was warmer than average.
