May and April 2018 hottest in Germany since 1881
June 4, 2018
May and April of 2018 were the hottest in Germany since records began in 1881, the German Weather Service (DWD) said on Monday.
With an average temperature of 16 degrees Celsius, DWD said May 2018 was 3.9 degrees warmer than its benchmark of monthly average temperatures between 1961 and 1990 .
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"In the last few years we have been experiencing a series of climate records that collectively can only be understood in the context of climate change," said DWD's Deputy President Paul Becker.
DWD said that not only had April and May been extremely hot months, but they had seen extreme weather events such as torrential rains and severe thunderstorms.
Becker said the growing number of these kinds of events "will require from all of us intensive adaptation measures and measures to counter climate change."
No low temperature records since 1956
DWD said the fact that two new temperature records had been set for two months in a row in Germany was a rare event that had only occurred once before in the past hundred years — in November and December 2015.
Climate change has resulted in new maximum records for rising average monthly temperatures occurring more and more in recent decades. From 2001-2010 there were 10 new monthly records.
In previous decades there were only two to four new maximum records per decade.
New minimum temperature records are extremely rare now, with the last one being recorded more than 60 years ago in February 1956.