It’s not over yet. And according to evaluations of all stations, the summer of 2022 could also end up in third place – ex aequo with that of 2015. However, this position is not particularly desirable, because it is about the warmest summers in measurement history.
This year’s in the lowlands of Austria was 1.6 degrees above the average of the climate mean from 1991 to 2020. It was 1.7 degrees warmer in the mountains. Compared to the climate period 1961 to 1990, 2022 was 3.4 degrees above the average in both the lowlands and the mountains. The series of measurements since 1767 includes 256 summers – ten of the 15 warmest are from the two-thousander years.
“The summers of 2003 and 2019 are still at the top,” says Alexander Orlik from the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG). The summer of 2022 was hot and dry, with heavy rain and severe thunderstorms. The lowest air temperature was measured in Ehrwald (Tyrol) with 4.0 degrees, the highest in Seibersdorf (Lower Austria) with 38.7 degrees. The driest place is also in Lower Austria: In Podersdorf there were precipitation measurements of only 140 millimeters. “It has been far too dry in Austria for a year now. This summer has exacerbated the existing problems,” says Orlik. In the series of the driest summers, 2022 is in 35th place.
Source: Nachrichten
