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Dozens of seal pups missing after hurricane

UPDATE: While hurricane Xaver did not tear up Germany as much as expected, it did destroy large stretches of dunes and on one island 47 seal pups are missing.

Published: 10 December 2013 16:11 CET

Dozens of seal pups missing after hurricane

Photo: DPA

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The island of Helgoland in the North Sea was home to 141 seal pups, 47 of which are missing since Xaver hit on Thursday. They are not expected to survive without their mothers.

Their mums are said to be hitching up and down beaches crying out to their lost babies, commissioner for nature protection on Helgoland Rolf Blädel said on Tuesday. “It was depressing,” he said, after making the grim discovery that only 94 of the previously-counted pups could be found.

Five mother seals are also missing, said Blädel, and their pups have been taken to a seal rescue centre on the nearby island of Friedsrichskoog.

CLICK HERE for pictures of remote Helgoland after the hurricane

Over on the Baltic cost, Mecklenburg Western-Pomerania saw 400,000 cubic metres of land blown away by 150 km/h winds last Thursday and Friday, Minister for the Environment Til Backhaus said on Monday. Total damages to the state stand at around €4 million ($5.5 million).

Juist, an island in the North Sea off the Lower Saxony coast, saw 25 metres of dunes blown into the sea, a spokeswoman from the state's coastal protection organization the NLWKN said. This was significantly more than other islands.

The loss was not unexpected, but in comparison to previous storms was “rather severe”, she told the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. Especially when taking other North Sea islands into consideration – Langeoog lost just two to four metres of its 350 metres of dunes.

Hurricane Xaver dislodged 500 cubic metres of debris into dykes in Juist which need to be cleared out.

Juist's mayor Dietmar Patron told the Süddeutsche he was happy Germany received plenty of warning that there was about to be a storm. He said it allowed authorities to pay special attention to harbour areas, to ensure minimal damage was done there.

CLICK HERE for photos of Hurricane Xaver

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Record heat deaths and floods: How Germany is being hit by climate change

In 2023, more days of extremely high temperatures were recorded than at any time since records began, the European climate change service Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) wrote in a joint report published on Monday.

The records go back to 1940 and sometimes even further.

“2023 has been a complex and multifaceted year in terms of climate hazards in Europe,” said Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Director Carlo Buontempo. “We have witnessed widespread flooding, but also extreme forest fires with high temperatures and severe droughts.”

These events have put a strain on natural ecosystems, and have also challenged agriculture, water management and public health.

According to the report, around 1.6 million people were affected by floods last year, and more than half a million people were affected by storms. The weather- and climate-related damage is estimated at well over 10 billion euros. “Unfortunately, these numbers are unlikely to decrease in the near future,” Buontempo said, referring to ongoing human-caused climate change.

Heat turns deadly, even in Germany

Averaged across Europe, 11 months of above-average warmth were recorded last year, with September being the warmest since records began in 1940.

A record number of days with so-called extreme heat stress, i.e. perceived temperatures of over 46C, was also registered.

As a result of higher temperatures, the number of heat-related deaths has risen by an average of 30 percent over the past 20 years.

According to the Robert Koch Institute, at least 3,100 deaths in Germany were linked to heat in the first nine months of 2023.

“In some cases, for example heat stroke, heat exposure leads directly to death, while in most cases it is the combination of heat exposure and pre-existing conditions that leads to death,” RKI explained in a statement, adding that women tend to be affected more than men due to higher proportion of women in older age groups.

In Germany temperatures above 30C are considered a heatwave. As weather patterns change due to human-caused climate change, heat waves have increased in number and length.

READ ALSO: How German cities are adapting to rising temperatures

Historically Germany hasn’t faced so many severe heatwaves each year, and central air conditioning is not commonly found in the country. In cities across the Bundesrepublik, heat plans are being drafted and refined to try and prepare for further extreme heat events in the near future.

Delivery van stuck in flood

A delivery van stranded in flood water during a storm surge near the fish market in Hamburg last winter. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Bodo Marks

Warming oceans and mountains and more rain

On average, the seas around Europe’s coasts were warmer than at any time since at least 1980.

READ ALSO: Colder winters and refugees – How changing ocean currents could impact Germany

It was also much too warm on the glaciers in 2023. “After the record ice loss in 2022, it was another exceptional year of loss in the Alps,” Copernicus and WMO wrote. In these two years, the glaciers in the Alps lost around 10 percent of their volume.

Interestingly, the excess meltwater may be boosting hydroelectricity production in the short term. According to the report, conditions for the production of green electricity in 2023 were very favourable, with its share of the total electricity mix at 43 percent, the highest seen so far.

Overall, seven percent more rain fell last year than average. It was one of the wettest years on record, the report said.

In one third of the river network in Europe, water volumes have been recorded that exceeded the flood threshold. There were severe floods in Italy and Greece, among other places, and parts of northern Germany were affected at the end of the year.

Hamburg and the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein were among regions hardest hit by floods in Germany last year. Northern sections of the Elbe river rose high enough to submerge Hamburg’s fish market several times among other places.

READ ALSO: Germany hit by floods as October heat turns into icy spell

2024 likely to continue breaking heat records

The recent report by Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organization is in agreement with a UN report published last month, which noted that last year came at the end of “the warmest 10-year period on record” according to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

“There is a high probability that 2024 will again break the record of 2023”, WMO climate monitoring chief Omar Baddour said, according to Science Alert.

Another year of record breaking high temperatures means Germany can likely expect more and longer heatwaves in the late spring, summer and early autumn seasons. Higher average temperatures are also correlated with an increase in extreme weather events like extreme storms and floods in parts of the country.

In drier parts of Europe it means an increase in droughts and wildfires.

With reporting by DPA.

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