What with heat waves and record-breaking heat days, you probably guessed it, but now it’s official - June 2019 was the hottest ever, and not just in Germany, or Europe, but the whole world. 

June 2019 was hottest ever

Global readings taken by the EU-operated Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) show indisputably that the June just gone was the hottest ever recorded worldwide, as the heatwave experienced in Germany at the end of the month was also felt in countries across Europe - including France, northern Spain, northern Italy, Switzerland, Austria and the Czech Republic. 

Overall, the average temperature in Europe in June 2019 was around two degrees above what is considered the “normal” range, a reference period based on average temperatures between 1981 and 2010. The previous record, set in June 2016, was beaten this year by 0,1 degrees. Taking the years 1850 to 1900 as a reference period, the temperature in June in Europe was on average an astonishing three degrees higher. 

Even hotter than normal in Germany

According to the German Weather Service (DWD), last month was the warmest and sunniest June ever measured in Germany, meaning that the deviation from the normal June conditions was even more pronounced in the federal republic than other European countries. 

With an average temperature of 19,8 degrees Celsius, the temperature in Germany in June was four degrees above the average for the period 1981-2010, the DWD announced in late June. In the last week of June, the temperature record was broken twice: hitting first 38,6 and then 39,6 degrees in Brandenburg, only 0,7 of a degree shy of the all-time temperature record of 40,3 degrees. 

Extreme temperatures will become more frequent

In a statement, the C3S said that, although it is difficult to attribute the extreme German weather to climate change directly, it is generally expected that such temperature extremes will become gradually more frequent as the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases increases. 

After the extreme heat, temperatures in Germany are expected to cool over the next week - although there are already some signs that a second heatwave might be on its way. Watch this space for more details.