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100 km/h strong winds, storms to hit Germany in the week ahead

Hold on to your hats - Germany is in for a very windy and stormy week.

Published: 6 June 2017 15:00 CEST

100 km/h strong winds, storms to hit Germany in the week ahead

Two women attempt to shelter themselves from the rain in Wiesbaden, Hesse. Photo: DPA

According to the German Weather Service (DWD), winds of up to 100 km/h will blast across Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt in the middle of the week, with the possibility of tornadoes in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

The DWD predicts that showers and thunderstorms will move from the west in a northeasterly direction on Tuesday. Temperatures in the east and northeast will lie around 22C-26C, elsewhere 16C to 22C. Storms will subside in the night to Wednesday.

Prediction for Wednesday. Photo: DWD

Wednesday will see a continuation of windy weather in the northwest, with rain and thunderstorms elsewhere. Temperatures will cool to 15C-20C.

The forecast for Thursday is rain with strong winds. Thunderstorms may develop in the northwest during the afternoon and evening. Temperatures in the south will be a warm 22C-27C, and a cooler 16C-20C in the north. You might have trouble sleeping since there will be thunderstorms overnight before Friday in the north and west, but the south and east will remain mostly dry.

Predictions for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Photo: DWD

Friday morning will begin with sun in the south and east with variable showers elsewhere. As the day progresses, there will be thunderstorms in central and southeastern Germany. Temperatures will hover around 18C-23C, or 22C-27C in the south and east.

The DWD does promise some sun over the weekend though. Saturday will be mostly sunny, despite showers in central and southern Germany. Temperatures should be around 22C in the north and 24C-28C in the south and southwest.

Sunday afternoon and evening will see thunderstorms in the west and northwest. The south and southwest will enjoy warm temperatures of 30C.

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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