From January to October, the weather service in Germany measures an average temperature of 11.8 degrees Celsius. It has never been this warm since records began around 140 years ago. Temperatures are also unusually high in the North and Baltic Seas.
The first ten months of this year were the warmest period from January to October in Germany since weather records began in 1881. An average of 11.8 degrees Celsius was measured, said the German Weather Service (DWD) in Offenbach. On Sunday, at the start of the UN climate conference in Egypt, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) declared that the past eight years were the hottest globally, according to preliminary data.
In Germany, nine of the ten warmest periods from January to October occurred in the 21st century, the DWD has now announced. 2022 was followed by the first ten months of 2018 and 2020. It is not yet possible to say how 2022 will turn out in Germany overall.
It was also unusually warm in the North and Baltic Seas in the summer of 2022, according to data from the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) in Hamburg. In the North Sea, the surface temperatures were above the long-term summer average between 1997 and 2021, especially in the south-western part. The BSH announced that it was more than one degree warmer here on average.
In the Baltic Sea, the surface temperatures in the summer were one and a half degrees above the long-term average, off the German coast the deviation was one degree. In addition, the BSH has recorded several marine heat waves. It pointed out that warmer seas are changing the distribution of animal species such as fish. In addition, the seas themselves have a major impact on weather and climate.
According to the WMO report, the earth has already warmed by around 1.15 degrees since the end of the 19th century. Around half of the increase has taken place in the past 30 years. With this drastic warming, melting glaciers, rising sea levels and extreme weather events such as heavy rain and heat waves would have increased.
The UN climate conference (COP27) has been running in Sharm el-Sheikh since Sunday. For two weeks, more than 190 countries are struggling to make more ambitious climate protection commitments.