New annual record of 2025 hours of sunshine – 1.7 degrees warmer since weather records began

The past year with new records for temperatures and hours of sunshine has allowed Germany to continue to get warmer overall. As the German Weather Service (DWD) announced on Friday in Offenbach, it has meanwhile become 1.7 degrees warmer in Germany since weather recording began in 1881. The average temperature in 2022 was 10.5 degrees Celsius. Global warming is progressing almost unchecked, explained DWD Director of Climate and Environment, Tobias Fuchs. So far, it has not been possible to “effectively step on the greenhouse gas brake”.

The Paris Climate Protection Agreement envisages limiting global warming to well below two degrees, if possible to 1.5 degrees, compared to the pre-industrial age. In 2021, the temperature increase in Germany compared to 1881 was already 1.6 degrees. According to the weather service, it was at least as warm in 2022 as in the previous record year 2018. Whether it was even warmer will only be revealed by the final evaluation of all station data from the national weather service at the beginning of January, it said.

According to current data, the past year has already set a new record for the duration of sunshine. According to the DWD, the sun shone for around 2025 hours nationwide on average. That was a good fifth more than in the comparable period from 1991 to 2020.

According to the weather service, the highest daily temperature in Germany was measured on July 20 in Hamburg-Neuwiedenthal. The station showed 40.1 degrees Celsius that day. Heinersreuth-Vollhof (Bavaria) recorded its low for the year on December 18 with minus 19.3 degrees Celsius.

The data from the weather service also show the great extent of the drought in Germany. In the course of the year, around 670 liters of precipitation per square meter fell on average in Germany. That was 15 percent less than in the reference period from 1961 to 1990. According to the information, the precipitation hole in summer even meant a minus of a good 40 percent compared to the reference period. It rained the least in Berlin, followed by Brandenburg. The nationwide highest daily precipitation was measured in Babenhausen in Bavaria. On August 19, 112.1 liters per square meter of rain fell there.

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