The preliminary German DWD national weather service results of the data for Germany this summer (June, July, August) are in. As expected, the summer was warmer than normal, but nothing really unusual.
Fudging the anomalies
The DWD reports, however, the temperature of the 2023 summer in Germany “was significantly above the multi-year average, every summer over the past 27 years.” To reach this conclusion, the DWD uses the 1961-1990 temperature reference period – a period we know was the among the very coolest over the 20th century.
“Once again, we can experience climate change live,” comments Uwe Kirsche, press spokesman for the German Weather Service (DWD).
The mean temperature for Germany in the summer of 2023 was 18.6 degrees Celsius (°C), meaning it was an unspectacular 1.0 degree over the mean of the 1991-2020 reference period. The temperature extremes ranged from a summer low of -0.7 °C recorded in Sohland an der Spree on June 3, to a high of 38.8 °C in Möhrendorf-Kleinseebach (Bavaria) recorded on July 15.
Summer weather was too lousy for the swimming pool
Millions of Germans, however were not convinced by the media reports of summer heat and many thought the summer on the whole was not even that warm.
For example, Hamburg’s online “Hamburger Abendblatt” here reports that the public swimming pool season this past summer was “a flop”, calling the summer, apart from June, “quite sad in terms of weather” and “that’s why there were so few visitors to the outdoor pools in the second half of the summer.”
The heat was mostly spread across southern Germany, while northern Germany saw near normal temperatures and above normal precipitation.
Wetter and sunnier than normal
In terms of precipitation, Germany’s 2023 summer saw 270 liters per square meter (l/m²) of precipitation a good 10 percent more than the average for the period 1991 to 2020 (241 l/m²).
With 720 hours of sunshine, Germany’s 2023 summer was sunnier than normal. Compared to 1991 to 2020 reference period (654 hours) it was about 10% sunnier than normal.
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