[ad_1]
On average, in 2020 it was more than two degrees hot in Germany. “Alarming,” says the German Meteorological Service. It was hotter in two big cities.
By Sebastian Kisters, HR
Very little rain, above-average heat, above-average sunny – the German Weather Service’s climate balance for 2020 sounds good at first. Many tourist regions brought dreamy weather this year. “We couldn’t have done better,” says winemaker Lars Reifert. Right next to his vineyard on Geiseltalsee in Saxony-Anhalt, he runs an open-air wine bar. Many visitors came to the fall. The camp on the opposite side of the lake was booked for weeks in the best weather. So far everything beautiful.
The boatmen in the interior of the rivers would have preferred the rain, especially at the beginning of the year. As early as April, the ships on the Rhine could not be fully loaded. “In dry years, the low water level never reached until fall. This law has been overridden for about ten years,” observes Martin Staats, president of the Federal Association for German Inland Navigation.
Spring and summer: clearly too dry
There was only 30 percent of the usual rains in April. Many garden owners may have noticed this too. “We had extreme deficits in rainfall, especially in spring and summer. And those are the phases in which vegetation is particularly sensitive to drought, ”says Tim Staeger, meteorologist at the ARD meteorological competence center in Frankfurt am Main.
Forests in particular suffer in many places. Due to the lack of water, the conifers could not produce much resin. They need this to repel bark beetles. Because they drill holes in the crust. The result of the drought: dying trees, large fallow areas in which tree after tree remained for decades. Experts assume that 285,000 hectares of forest will need to be reforested throughout Germany. That is an area larger than the Saarland.
2nd place – behind 2018
2020 was not only too dry, but above all too warm. With an average temperature of 10.4 degrees, this year is the second warmest since the weather began. In 2018 alone it was 10.5 degrees warmer in Germany.
8.2 degrees is considered normal, this value, the so-called long-term average, was determined in the years 1961 to 1990. More recently, there were repeatedly average values above 10 degrees. “The five warmest years since 2013 have occurred throughout Germany. This is a clear sign that climate change is also occurring in Germany,” says meteorologist Staeger.
The trend is global. “With a deviation of more than five degrees, the Arctic in particular has become extremely hot this year. The global average will probably set a record in 2020.”
The hottest place was …
In Germany, the change is particularly noticeable in large cities. With an average temperature of 12.8 degrees, Cologne is the warmest place in Germany this year, followed by Frankfurt am Main with 12.6 degrees. Stressful: in metropolitan areas, concrete and asphalt store heat in summer even at night. Residents of the city center often feel that it hardly gets cold.
The story “Insomnia in …” could be told in many big cities during the summer. Many cities respond. Frankfurt, for example, pays up to 50 percent of costs when people green their roofs or facades so that less heat can be stored. Geographer Lara Mohr is in charge of the “Frankfurt refreshes” project. She says: “Especially in the last very, very hot and dry years it clicked. We have to do something and adaptation to climate change is an important issue in urban planning.”
fight against climate change
Tobias Fuchs, Climate Director of the German Meteorological Service, calls for the causes of warming to be stopped: “The very warm 2020 should not leave us cold. The scientific scientific facts of the national meteorological service are alarming. Climate protection is at the command of the day. must act now. “
The sunniest place in Germany in 2020 is expected to be Kaufbeuren. The Bavarian city already has a “climate adaptation concept” together with the Ostallgäu district.
