Looking at the temperatures, one would think that summer is back. During the day, the thermometer rose unusually in the fall and reached values between 21 and 24 degrees, at Lippstadt-Bökenförde up to a peak value of 25.7 degrees.
Plenty of records have been broken across the country since Friday afternoon: in Verl with a score of 23.6, in Heinsberg Schleiden with a score of 24.3 and in Brillon Thiel with a score of 22.8 – that’s 1.1 degrees more than in 2012. And the entire weekend has exceeded the temperature 20 degrees – partly cloudy with sunshine and mostly dry.
Warmest October since records began?
With these values, this October is exceptionally warm, says meteorologist Jürgen Vogt of the WDR Department of Meteorology. A few warm days at the end of October are not bad in themselves and happen again and again. So individual heat waves are not direct evidence of climate change. However, the average temperatures, which are very hot, are very interesting: in October, values range from 3 to 3.5 degrees above the long-term average.
Given the forecast for the coming days, it’s expected: This October is likely to be the warmest since records began in 1881. The monthly average is already 13.1 degrees. With temperatures expected to rise over the weekend and on Monday, the previous high of 13.4 degrees, which was averaged in October 2001, should be surpassed. It is clearly a result of climate change, Vogt explains.
The groundwater level is declining
The lack of rain is also a problem. For five consecutive years, Vogt says, the weather in Germany has been very dry. Only about 370 liters of rain is said to have fallen on Emsdetten this year – about half the annual average.
