The weather in in October 2018

Generally very warm and very sunny – extreme drought continues

Offenbach, 30 October 2018 – The continuing influence of high pressure had largely kept low pressure areas away from central Europe, ensuring that the whole of Germa- ny enjoyed an extremely sunny and very warm October. Autumn temperatures only made an appearance at the start of the first ten days and during the last third of the month. Most of the time, however, south-westerly airflows presented the country with unusually warm and dry air masses, further intensifying the extreme drought that has lasted since April. This is what the initial analysis by the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) of data from its around 2,000 weather stations shows.

Primarily late summer weather with cool end to the month

Average October temperatures nationwide were 10.7 degrees Celsius (°C), i.e. 1.7 degrees higher than the values for the international reference period 1961–1990. Looking at the comparative period 1981–2010, the deviation was 1.5 degrees above normal. The month started cool but, from 5 October onwards, the summer returned and, until around 17 October, most of the country enjoyed temperatures clearly above 20 °C. Because of these extreme weather conditions, some DWD stations reported new records for the number of summer days: for instance, in Düsseldorf, Waltrop- Abdinghof, to the north of Dortmund, and Tönisvorst, seven such days were counted. Particularly at the start of the second third of the month, the high pressure system 'Vic- tor' brought unusually warm temperatures for the season. The highest temperature nationwide of this late summer period was 28.6 °C registered on 13 October in Tönis- vorst, to the west of Krefeld. Cooler air only set in again in the last third of the month. On 22 October, Rottweil, to the north-east of Villingen-Schwenningen, recorded mi- nus 5.0 °C, making it the lowest temperature nationwide in October.

Precipitation deficit again and intensification of the continuing extreme drought

With around 28 litres per square metre (l/m²), precipitation in October was only around half the normal of 56 l/m². With the exception of the extreme south, there was again an enormous precipitation deficit, and the extreme period of drought that persisted since April intensified. The water level in the Rhine even fell to record low levels on some stretches. Up until 29 October, rainfall in some places in the Palatinate, Rheinhessen and the Hunsrück Mountains was even less than one litre. Precipitation was significant- ly higher on 24 October in Bischofswiesen-Loipl, to the north-west of : the highest daily rainfall nationwide of 72.5 l/m² within 24 hours was recorded here as a result of the tail ends of the low pressure system 'Tina'. The southern low mountain ranges experienced a brief wintry spell on 28 October. At 3 p.m. Klippeneck on the

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Swabian Alb reported 20 cm of snow cover. The highest total precipitation for the month of over 130 l/m² was recorded at some measuring sites along the Alps.

October 2018 was one of the sunniest October months since measurements be- gan in 1951

With around 160 hours nationwide, sunshine during the month was more than 47 per cent higher than the climate average, making it one of the fifth sunniest October months since measurements began. The Allgäu, Upper and Franconian Alb saw most sunshine with up to 200 hours. New monthly records were set at many measuring sites in Germany. Least sunshine was recorded in eastern Hesse and west- ern Thuringia, with some places only receiving around 120 hours. However, even that was clearly higher than average.

All the monthly values stated in this press release are provisional figures. The data used for the last two days of the month are based on forecasts. Some of the measure- ments from DWD's network of stations were not yet available at the time of publication.

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