Hardly any rain - and up to 39 degrees: Germany is threatened with a new drought summer

There are already signs of a precipitation deficit for Germany in 2022 - and the problem is likely to worsen in the coming weeks.

Hardly any rain - and up to 39 degrees: Germany is threatened with a new drought summer

There are already signs of a precipitation deficit for Germany in 2022 - and the problem is likely to worsen in the coming weeks. The German weather service forecasts not only hot, but also extremely dry weeks.

This year, too, Germany is threatened with a new summer of drought. The current forecasts of the German Weather Service (DWD) predict extremely dry weeks between the end of July and the end of August. At the same time, there is a risk of renewed heat in parts of the country, sometimes up to 39 degrees. It is likely to be particularly dry in the west. For Cologne, the experts calculate only about five rainy days up to August 15th. The amount of precipitation remains rather low. The trend for Berlin looks a little better - there is at least a little more precipitation there with fewer rainy days.

According to the DWD, there is plenty of storm potential in the south. In the second half of July, Munich experienced "an almost continuous heat wave with temperatures of 30 to 35 degrees," according to the weather service's latest forecast. Although appreciable amounts of rain are also calculated for a few days, the south remains too dry overall.

Even if midsummer is currently taking a break: From Tuesday it will be hot again in the southwest with over 30 degrees, on Friday, according to ntv meteorologist Rainer Buchhop, even over 35 degrees could be reached. "And the summer heat is also coming back in the other regions," says Buchhop. "The temperatures are only subdued near the coast."

Not only in Germany, but also in large parts of Europe, it is likely to become drier again in the next three months than the long-term average of the comparison period 1991 to 2020. In a climate study, the DWD assumes that dry summers, but also lack of precipitation in winter, will in future shape the weather pattern in parts of the continent. In the long term, depending on the extent of future global warming, precipitation in the Mediterranean will decrease, the study said. In summer there is a risk of increased drought in Central and especially Western Europe.

Since spring, the DWD has been observing an extensive drought in Europe, which in some cases has a significant impact on water levels and agriculture, as well as restrictions on water use. Some parts of Europe, including northern Italy, were also dry in winter. In the central Mediterranean region, spring was the fourth driest since 1901, and in Germany almost all springs since 2009 have been too dry.

A precipitation deficit is emerging for almost all eleven regions of Europe examined. Only the Baltic States and Scandinavia have not had too little rain so far. In contrast, in the northern Italian Po Valley, which is currently being plagued by severe drought, precipitation levels have been below average since August 2021 with the exception of November 2021.

The highest rainfall in this region falls between May and November. Since August 2021, however, five of these otherwise wet months have only brought between 50 and 75 percent of the usual amounts of precipitation.

In Central Europe, too, precipitation has been below average since last September - the only exception was February 2022. According to the DWD, March 2022 in particular was exceptionally dry and brought only around a third of the usual amounts of precipitation.