In the lowlands, it was even the warmest summer in the 258-year series of measurements. In addition, summer 2024 will be the fourth extremely warm season in a row since autumn 2023.
“It was the second warmest summer in the mountains of Austria, behind 2003 and on a par with 2019,” said Geosphere climatologist Alexander Orlik. According to the preliminary evaluation, the meteorological summer of 2024 in the lowlands of Austria is 2.1 degrees above an average summer of the 1991-2020 climate period and 3.9 degrees above the 1961-1990 average. In the summit regions it is 2.2 degrees above the average of the 1991-2020 climate period and 3.9 degrees above the 1961-2020 climate period.
This confirms the trend towards an increasingly warmer climate. Austria’s measurement series, which has existed since 1767, covers 258 summers and, with three exceptions, the 20 warmest are only summers from the recent past of the climate period 1991-2020. The summer of 2024, for example, brought about twice as many hot days (at least 30 degrees) in the state capitals as an average summer in the period 1991-2020 and about three to four times as many hot days as the average of the climate period 1961-1990.
It was hot even at night
“If you take the forecast for the last days of August into account, there are also isolated records for the number of hot days,” says climatologist Orlik, “for example at the weather station in Vienna’s inner city with 45 and in Eisenstadt with 41 hot days.” Another striking feature was the largely constant high temperature level during the day and night. In several regions there were new records for the average low temperatures (average of all night minima this summer), for example in Zwettl with 12.8 degrees, Vienna Hohe Warte with 18.0 degrees, Mariazell with 12.9 degrees and Kremsmünster with 16.3 degrees.
Some Geosphere weather stations recorded new records for tropical nights (minimum temperature not below 20 degrees), for example Vienna Inner City with 44, Eisenstadt with 25, Linz with 15 and St. Pölten and Graz University with eleven tropical nights. (Evaluation up to and including August 29, 2024)
13 percent less precipitation
In the Austria-wide evaluation, the meteorological summer of 2024 brought 13 percent less precipitation than an average summer, but with large regional differences. The evaluation shows roughly average amounts of rainfall in most of the mountainous region. The regions that were significantly drier, with 15 to 45 percent less rain than average, were mainly East Tyrol, Upper Carinthia, Lungau, parts of Upper Austria, Lower Austria and Burgenland, as well as Vienna and southeast Styria.
Several heavy rain events caused mudslides and floods this summer. For example, on August 17, 2024, it rained 94 liters per square meter in just one hour at the Vienna Hohe Warte weather station. That was the highest amount of rain ever measured here in one hour. At three percent below average, the duration of sunshine was pretty much in the range of an average summer in the Austria-wide evaluation.
