2023-09-29 14:05:00
Two weeks ago, the experts from Geosphere Austria (formerly ZAMG) predicted a possible record, and the preliminary values just before the end of the month confirm this assumption. In some state capitals, the number of summer days rose to unprecedented levels.
3.5 to 4.5 degrees too warm
Regionally, the deviations were even greater; this time the highest deviations from the climate average were in the west, north and east of the country. In eastern Upper Austria, in Vorarlberg and North Tyrol, in Lower Austria, Vienna and northern Burgenland, September 2023 was 3.5 to 4.5 degrees too warm. On the mountains too, the anomalies to the average climate were between plus 3.5 and 4.8 degrees.
Video: Warmest September since records began
“We experienced the warmest September in the 257-year history of measurements,” says climatologist Alexander Orlik from Geosphere. “September 2023 was 3.2 degrees above the average for the climate period 1991 to 2020 in the lowlands of Austria and 4.2 degrees in the mountains.” Compared to the 1961-1990 climate period, September 2023 was 3.6 degrees above average in the lowlands and 4.2 degrees above average in the mountains.
So far, 2016 has been at the top
So far, September 2016 was the hottest of the past 10 years, but the deviation of around 2.45 degrees from the average of over 250 years of measurement history was only enough for eighth place in the entire time series. At 3.1 degrees above the average, the year 1810 was the undisputed leader for a long time, but there was only a deviation of over 3 degrees in 1932, as can be seen from the Geosphere data.
“If October, November and December are similar to the average of the past ten years, 2023 will be one of the three warmest years in Austria’s 256-year measurement history,” said Orlik in the middle of the month – in this context he underlined the importance of global warming in the context of the Climate crisis.
The records were also made possible by the absence of cold air outbreaks; cloudy days were also a rarity, and therefore the number of hours of sunshine was unusually high. “Across Austria, the sun shone 40 percent longer in September 2023 than in an average September,” says climatologist Orlik. “This made it the second sunniest September since sunshine measurements began in 1925. Only September 1997 was sunnier, with an increase of 55 percent.”
Number of summer days exceeded
At least in Linz, Bregenz, Eisenstadt and Vienna, the previous number of summer days – days with at least 25 degrees – has already been exceeded, in Salzburg the record might still fall if it gets that warm here once more – which the forecasts believe is possible – the record also falls here. In an average September in Austria there are one to eight summer days up to around 1,000 m above sea level. This September, however, the average values here were exceeded by two to eight times. In Langenlebarn (Lower Austria), for example, there were 24 summer days, which is 16 days more than average.
more on the subject
Temperatures up to 27 degrees: It remains late summer
There was a negative deviation in the Austria-wide evaluation of rainfall in September 2023, which was 45 percent lower than during an average rainfall than an average September. This puts it in the range of the 20 driest September months in measurement history. The final ranking can only be said following all measuring stations have been evaluated at the end of the month. September 2023 was far removed from the extremely dry September months of 1865 (-82 percent), 1959 (-73 percent) and 1947 (-72 percent).
Even greater deviation in Germany
In Germany, man-made climate change caused an even larger deviation; here, according to the German Weather Service’s preliminary results, September was the warmest since measurements began in 1881 and brought “a value that has never been achieved in the annals of weather records”: the average temperature was 17.2 degrees. That was 3.9 degrees above the value of the internationally valid reference period 1961 to 1990. Compared to the current and warmer comparison period 1991 to 2020, the deviation was 3.4 degrees. This significantly exceeded the previous records from September 2006 and 2016, which were 16.9 degrees each.
In France, too, it was the warmest September since weather records began in 1900. According to preliminary values, the average temperature was 21.5 degrees, 3.6 degrees warmer than the average for the years 1991 to 2020, according to the weather service Météo France announced on Friday in Paris..
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