At the end of August, North Rhine-Westphalia was close to a hot day record for the current year. At the beginning of September it got hot again. This is probably a new high since records began more than 70 years ago.
Essen (dpa/lnw) - Temperatures of more than 30 degrees at the beginning of the meteorological autumn have probably given North Rhine-Westphalia a new record since records began in terms of the number of hot days per year. According to preliminary figures, the mean area in NRW is now 17.7 hot days in 2022, which would exceed the previous maximum value from 2018 (17.5 days), as Thomas Kesseler-Lauterkorn, meteorologist at the German Weather Service (DWD) in Essen, announced. The official value will only be made available at the end of the year - but a new record can be assumed with a high degree of probability.
A hot day is a day with temperatures of 30 degrees and more. A mean area value is determined for NRW, i.e. a calculated value that includes data from all around 40 measuring stations in the state. The topography of the stations is taken into account - for example, whether they are on a mountain. Decimal values can also come about if it was only hot in one part of the federal state.
The previous high of 17.5 days was exceeded with the hot temperatures at the beginning of the week, said Kesseler-Lauterkorn. More hot days can no longer be expected this year. The meteorological beginning of autumn was on September 1st.
Although many stations have been recording longer, the national value has only been calculated since 1951. The DWD meteorologist recently pointed out that there could have been as many or even more hot days in 1947 than in 2018 or 2022. In any case, the consideration of longer climatological periods is more decisive. And it shows that the number of hot days per year in NRW has steadily increased over the past few decades. Between 1961 and 1990 the average was 4.0. In the period from 1991 to 2000, it doubled to 8.1. In the years 2011 to 2020 the value was 9.4.
