Like most of the previous years in recent memory, the weather in Germany in 2019 was once again too dry, sunny and, above all, far too warm. According to provisional estimates from the German Weather Service (DWD), it was in fact the third warmest year since records began in 1881. 

2019 in Germany two degrees above average

With an average temperature of 10,2 degrees, overall 2019 was 2,0 degrees warmer than the average temperature between 1961 and 1990. Compared to the reference period 1981 - 2010, the upward deviation was 1,3 degrees. 

2019 is therefore one of the warmest years ever recorded in Germany. The DWD noted that nine out of the 10 warmest years in Germany history have occurred in the years since 2010. The warmest year ever recorded was 2018, with an average temperature of 10,5 degrees. The second-warmest was in 2014, when the average temperature reached 10,3 degrees. 

11 months had above-average temperatures

A large part of 2019’s high overall value is due to the fact that a total of 11 months experienced unusually high temperatures. The only exception was May, which after 13 months of above-average temperatures was very cold and wet. Nonetheless, it was immediately followed by the warmest and sunniest June ever recorded in Germany. 

This was a prelude to another significantly dry and extremely hot summer, which surpassed all previous temperature records. As the thermometer reached or even exceeded the 40-degree mark at 23 different measuring stations at the end of July, rivers dried up and extensive drought brought Germany’s forests to the brink of collapse.

DWD: “Climate change is taking over”

The DWD said that the 2010s were also Germany’s warmest decade since records began. “Climate change is taking over,” said DWD spokesperson Andreas Friedrich. “This is no coincidence. It is a truly dramatic increase.” 

Friedrich warned that Germany will have to reckon with more extreme weather events in the years to come. “Summer heat waves are the deadliest danger our weather has to offer,” he said. “It won’t get too cold very often any more.” He instead predicted that dry heat waves will become commonplace in Germany within the next decade.