A common argument from climate change deniers is that it used to be hot. They often do not take into account that the number of hot days increases over the years.
Berlin – Decades ago, the thermometers in Germany repeatedly scratched the 40-degree mark. That is why some are now questioning climate change. But this argument doesn’t work.
Claim: High temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius are nothing special in this country.
Rating: Wrong.
Facts: The German Weather Service (DWD) defines a “hot day” as when the air temperature reaches more than 30 degrees Celsius. It doesn’t have to be that hot for a “summer day” – a peak of 25 degrees is required here. An example: In Frankfurt am Main between 1981 and 2010 there were an average of 52 summer days and 13 “hot days” per year.
It is true that high temperatures were measured on individual days decades ago. In Bremen, for example, it was 36 degrees in August 1943, in Cologne-Stammheim 37.9 degrees in June 1947 and in Potsdam 38.4 degrees in July 1959. However, these measurements do not refute global warming.
If you look at the temperatures over a longer period of time, climate change becomes clear: According to the DWD, the average air temperature in Germany rose by 1.6 degrees between 1881 and 2021. The five warmest years in Germany all occurred after the year 2000.
The United Nations (UN) describes climate change as long-term changes in temperatures and weather patterns that have been “due primarily to human activities” since the 19th century. According to the UN, these are mainly the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas.
The trend is clear
DWD analyzes of the German summer show a clear trend: Among the ten “warmest summers in the history of measurements” are six in this millennium and eight after 1992. The summer of 2003 took the top spot with an average temperature of 19.7 degrees, followed by 2018 ( 19.3 degrees) and 2019 (19.2 degrees).
According to DWD information, the number of “hot days” has also increased significantly: in Frankfurt am Main between 1961 and 1990 it was warmer than 30 degrees on 8.7 days per year, in the period from 1990 to 2019 there were 16, 3 hot days almost twice as many per year. In the Berlin/Brandenburg region, the number of “hot days” increased from 6.5 (1961 to 1990) to 11.5 (1990 to 2019) per year.
And it will probably get even hotter. Calculations by the DWD have recently shown that in Germany over the coming years it will be up to one degree warmer on average than in the past three decades. dpa
