What many people are already feeling is now being documented again: the number of hot days with temperatures above 30 degrees is increasing. It has tripled since the 1950s. In Hamburg, temperatures above 40 degrees were measured for the first time this summer. In contrast, ice days decrease noticeably in winter.
The number of hot days in Germany with an air temperature of at least 30 degrees has increased significantly in recent decades. Averaged across Germany, it has tripled since the 1950s from around three days per year to the current average of nine days per year, according to a paper on the state of the art that is to be presented at the Extreme Weather Congress in Hamburg.
The average number of ice days (daily maximum air temperature below 0 degrees) decreased from 28 days to 19 days in the same period. On July 20 of this year, for example, a maximum daily temperature of 40.1 degrees was measured during an intense heat wave in Hamburg-Neuwiedenthal. Temperatures above 40 degrees have never been measured so far north in Central Europe. In many regions there has been a massive accumulation of heat waves since the 1990s.
“This effect is a consequence of global warming and the resulting significant rise in temperature in Germany,” write the scientists in the paper published by the congress and the German Weather Service. “With unchecked greenhouse gas emissions, a further increase of five to ten hot days per year in northern Germany and 10 to 20 hot days in southern Germany is expected for the period 2031 to 2060.”
The extreme weather congress takes place Wednesday to Friday in the International Maritime Museum in the Hanseatic city. Around 100 scientists and experts will present the latest findings, as organizer and meteorologist Frank Böttcher announced. Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, expedition researcher Arved Fuchs and Fridays for Future activist Luisa Neubauer are also expected.
