German DWD National Weather Service Declares Near Normal July As “Too Warm, Wet And Sunny” • Watts Up With That?
By P Gosselin
Comparing July. 2023, data to the up to date 1991-2020 reference period, July in Germany was practically dead normal in terms of temperature, sunshine and precipitation. But that’s not what the DWD national weather service wants the media and public to hear.
The latter part of July in Germany was wet and cool, thus putting a damper on a summer that began hot and dry. Symbol image by P. Gosselin
The early part of July in Germany was hot with lots of sunshine, according to the data from the German DWD National Weather Service, but the weather turned and the latter part was cool and wet, and so ended up making the month near normal.
July mean temperature close to normal
“At the beginning of the last third of the month, an unsettled westerly weather situation set in, ushering in a significantly cooler and precipitation-rich period of weather nationwide, reports the DWD in its preliminary July report. “All in all, this year’s July was too warm, wet and sunny.” This is the conclusion drawn by the DWD, based on the data collected from some 2,000 measuring stations across the country and comparing it to an outdated 1961-1990 reference period.
According to the DWD, the average temperature in July 2023 was 18.7 degrees Celsius (°C), Compared to the 1991 to 2020 reference period, it was 4 tenths of a degree warmer than normal. The high temperature for the month was 38.8 °C recorded on July 15th.
“Cooler air masses prevailed in the last third of the month. From the 25th to the 27th the highs were only below 20 °C in many places. At night, too, it got chilly in many places,” reports the DWD.
Wetter than normal, drought alleviated
July, 2023, was wetter than normal in Germany, with around 100 liters per square meter (l/m²) falling. It was almost 15 per cent more than the mean of the 1991 to 2020 reference period (87 l/m²). “This alleviated the previous extreme dryness in the extreme north as well as in the south and southwest. The Bavarian Alps, along with the North Sea coast, were among the wettest regions with over 200 l/m².”
Normal sunshine
With a 230 hours of sunshine, July was normal. The mean of the 1991 to 2020 reference period is 225 hours of sunshine. The eastern parts of the country reported the most sunshine hours (>250 hours).
Finishing with the least sunshine (around 200 hours) were the Alps, the western low mountain ranges and large parts of the northwest.
10% less sunshine in the 1960s, 70s and 80s
The mean amount of sunshine in July during the back-to-the-ice-age days of the 1961 to 1990 reference period in Germany was only 211 hours, which in part explains why the period was cooler. Today, July in Germany sees about 10% more sunshine, so little wonder the mean July temperature is up a degree or two since the 1970s.
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