Within the space of just one week, the temperature in Germany rose by almost 42 degrees - the sharpest increase since weather records began. And that’s not the only record that was broken this February. 

Göttingen experiences sharpest-ever temperature increase

Safe to say that the weather in Germany has been a bit strange lately: first snowstorms and freezing cold, and then, in just the blink of an eye, balmy sunshine and sunny skies. The weather has changed at lightning speed this week. In fact, according to climate researchers at the German Weather Service (DWD) the change has been record-breaking. 

The temperature in Germany has never risen as sharply within the space of seven days as it did this February at the Göttingen weather stations. Confirmed figures now show that a low of minus 23,8 degrees was measured there on February 14, while just seven days later, on February 21, a high of 18,1 degrees was reached - an incredible increase of 41,9 degrees.

In order to find something even remotely comparable, the weather researchers at DWD had to go way back in time: the previous record was set in May 1880, the very early days of weather records. At that time, a temperature increase of 41 degrees was measured within seven days, a spokesperson said. 

Two winter heat records broken this week in Germany

The huge temperature increase in a short space of time - an indicator of the kind of extreme weather patterns that could become more common in Germany in the future, as a result of climate change - was not the only weather record to be broken this February. 

According to the DWD, two regional winter heat records were also measured on Monday. In Quickborn in Schleswig-Holstein, a high of 18,9 degrees was measured - a reading significantly above the record value of 17,8 degrees, which was measured two years ago. 

In Hamburg, the temperature rose as high as 21,1 degrees at the Neuwidenthal weather station on Monday. The previous record of 18,1 degrees at the same station a year earlier was “pulverised”, according to a DWD spokesperson: “For the first time since records began, the temperature in Hamburg rose above 20 degrees in winter.”