2022 sunniest and among warmest years in Germany – meteorological service DWD

Last year was the sunniest and among the warmest years in Germany, according to the National Meteorological Service (DWD). With an average annual temperature of 10.5 degrees Celsius, 2022 tied with 2018 for the warmest year on record in Germany since records began in 1881. The year was also marked by a significant lack of precipitation. "Since 1881, we have had an increase in the annual mean temperature in Germany of 1.7 degrees,” DWD’s head of climate monitoring Andreas Becker said. “This can only be explained by man-made climate change. This warming trend has accelerated significantly since the early 1970s and there is no reason to expect it to slow down in the years to come.” In the past nine years, five years have seen average temperatures above 10 degrees – levels that had not been reached in Germany before 2014. According to DWD, the temperature rise in 2022 resulted in heat waves and very dry conditions in the summer months, which affected agriculture and forestry in particular. Higher than average temperatures also marked the turn of the year and resulted in many new monthly records.

Across Europe, 2022 was also the second warmest year since the start of weather data collection, with regionally intensive periods of heat and drought. Globally, the past eight years have been the warmest on record. "We are now experiencing heat periods and intensities that we would not have expected from the climate models for a few decades," Becker said. In view of the consistently high temperatures, he called for greater promotion of climate protection in Germany and globally, noting that adaptation to much warmer temperatures could be more expensive and only possible to a limited extent in the country.

The DWD reported last year that the summer of 2022 had been the sunniest, the sixth driest and among the four warmest on record.