2018 is a year of extreme weather:North Germans are looking forward to a dream summer, but the long drought has serious consequences. A lot of snow and violent storms are also part of the balance sheet of this weather year.
Super long, super warm, super sunny:The year 2018 brought the North Germans a summer of superlatives. The first temperature records were already broken in spring, in Lingen in Emsland the thermometer climbed to 29 degrees on April 19th. The summer months of June, July and August bring hardly any rain, lots of sunshine and other records, for example on the Greifswalder Oie:14 tropical nights where the temperature does not fall below 20 degrees and more than 900 hours of sunshine are recorded on the small Baltic Sea island off Rügen registered - more than in any other place in Germany.
SH and MV:Warmest summer since measurements began
It's a dream summer for holidaymakers on the North and Baltic Seas, for outdoor pool owners, ice cream vendors and anyone who can enjoy a bit of time outdoors. For Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the German Weather Service (DWD) recorded the warmest summer since weather records began in 1881. In Lower Saxony and Hamburg - they are summarized in the statistics of the DWD - even higher average temperature values were measured only in the summer months of 2003.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has 850 hours of sunshine, Schleswig-Holstein 750, Lower Saxony 745 and Hamburg still have 720 hours of sunshine. The north German high for this summer is 37.9 degrees, measured on August 7 in Barsinghausen-Hohenbostel (Lower Saxony). It will be warm until October, which puts the North Germans in the summer mood again.
Drought and fires - a dream summer with a downside
But there are also downsides - and they have it all. It has been far too dry for months, and Lower Saxony has even recorded the second driest summer since measurements began - with drastic consequences for agriculture. There are significant yield losses in grain and maize, for example. In the agricultural state of Lower Saxony alone, 4,000 farmers apply to the federal and state governments for drought aid.
Again and again there are field and forest fires. The moor fire that broke out on September 4th in Meppen, Lower Saxony, is spreading over an area of about two by four kilometers, before it can be extinguished after several weeks. Low water brings enormous difficulties for shipping, including in the district of Dithmarschen drinking water is scarce. People, animals and plants suffer from the heat wave that grips the north in late July/early August.
Year of Extreme Weather
In general, 2018 was a year of extreme weather:
- Hurricane low "Friederike" sweeps across the north on January 18 with heavy snowfall and hurricane gusts. Long-distance rail traffic is paralyzed nationwide, several people die. According to the DWD, wind speeds of 203 kilometers per hour are measured on the Brocken in the Harz Mountains, and the storm is causing the worst damage in the forests since hurricane "Kyrill" eleven years ago.
- On February 28th, a snow front moved across parts of Schleswig-Holstein and led to drifts. The snow piles up in the Bredstedt area, sometimes more than half a meter. Due to the persistently icy temperatures, there are obstacles to inland shipping in the north. Ice is also forming on the North and Baltic Seas, shipping traffic to the East Frisian Islands is temporarily suspended and icebreakers are used on the Baltic Sea. In many places the children can look forward to school failures.
- Renewed snowfall on April 1st and 2nd:Record snowfalls bring a white Easter, especially to people in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Trees that collapsed under the weight of snow block roads and railway lines, there is a power outage, and the aviaries collapse at the Marlow Bird Park. After that, thaws lead to flooding.
- Again and again in 2018, thunderstorms and heavy rainfall caused high levels of damage, for example in mid-April in the Heide district or on Ascension Day (May 10) in southern Holstein and in the greater Hamburg area.
- On September 21, the first autumn storm of the year affects rail and road traffic, partially paralyzes shipping traffic to the North Sea islands and causes containers to tip over in the port of Hamburg.
"Climate change has Germany under control"
So what remains of this weather year? According to the annual balance sheet of the German Weather Service DWD, 2018 was the warmest year in Germany since weather observations began in 1881, with an average of 10.4 degrees Celsius. A "sad record", said then Vice President Paul Becker at the time. Eight of the nine warmest years since 1881 have occurred in the 21st century. "This conspicuous concentration of warm years clearly shows that warming is unabated and that climate change has Germany under control." For the future, experts expect not only a further increase in average temperatures, but also an increase in extreme events - with all their consequences for nature and society.