World Meteorological European Organization Deutscher Climate Support World Climate Data Wetterdienst Network and Monitoring Programme Annual Bulletin on the Climate in WMO Region VI - Europe and Middle East - 2004 ISSN: 1438 7522 Internet version: http://www.dwd.de/en/FundE/Klima/KLIS/prod/RA-VI-Bulletin http://www.gcmp.dwd.de/ Editor: Deutscher Wetterdienst P.O. Box 10 04 65, D 63004 Offenbach am Main, Germany Phone: +49 69 8062 2938 Fax: +49 69 8062 2993 Responsible: Dr. Peter Bissolli; Peer Hechler E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] Technical assistance: Anja Jaeger E-mail: [email protected] Volker Zins E-mail: [email protected] Acknowledgements: Special thanks to our colleagues G. Müller-Westermeier, J. Rapp, G. Rosenhagen and E. Dittmann for their valuable comments and corrections. Annual Bulletin on the Climate in WMO Region VI - Europe and Middle East 2004 The Bulletin is a summary of contributions of the following National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and was co-ordinated by Deutscher Wetterdienst, Germany Albania Armenia Austria Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Israel Italy Jordan Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Moldova Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia Serbia and Montenegro Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey United Kingdom List of Contents FOREWORD 3 OUTSTANDING EVENTS AND ANOMALIES IN 2004 4 ANNUAL SURVEY 5 SEASONAL SURVEY 15 SEASONAL MAPS 18 MONTHLY AND ANNUAL TABLES 22 MONTHLY SURVEYS 28 January 2004 28 February 2004 33 March 2004 36 April 2004 39 May 2004 42 June 2004 45 July 2004 49 August 2004 53 September 2004 57 October 2004 60 November 2004 66 December 2004 72 ACTIVITIES AND RESULTS OF EUROPEAN CLIMATE CENTRES 77 OZONE LAYER OVER CENTRAL EUROPE IN 2004 78 Annual Bulletin on the Climate in WMO Region VI 2004 3 Foreword This is now the 11th edition of the Annual Bulletin on the Climate in WMO Regional Association VI, providing information on the climate for the year 2004. The National Meteorological and Hydrological Services of WMO Region VI provided once more valuable contributions to this issue, often illustrated by various maps, diagrams, tables and even photographs. For this reason the editors decided to present all the figures in colour again, like it was already done for the previous year. 40 out of 49 countries responded to the Call for Input which is sent every year in December. This has shown again that a high majority of the Member countries is interested in presenting their national results to the public in co-operation with their partners of the huge WMO RAVI community. While 2004 was generally not such an outstanding year like 2003 with its unusual warm summer in Central Europe, there were some noteworthy events in 2004 too. It was again a warm year compared to the reference period 1961-1990. Especially in the Arctic regions the anomalies reached about +2°C. In Scandinavia, the months April and December were very mild. But also the precipitation anomalies were remarkable: Whilst Russia had its second wettest year according to the corresponding precipitation time series; it was a very dry year especially in Portugal and southern France. Other disastrous events were some heavy storms in the eastern Mediterranean in January and November, and some strong hailstorms and tornadoes in Central and Eastern Europe in June. Since the observation of tornadoes and other severe weather events have become more and more popular, they have to be included in any regular climate monitoring activity too. Like in the editions before, this climate monitoring bulletin also reports on recent ECSN activities. In order to present all this information in a reader-friendly way, the editors have slightly changed the layout of this issue compared to the previous one. The new single-column layout is probably easier to read, and highlighting the names of the countries in the text could help to find the contributions of the various Members more easily. To all the contributors, I would like to express my warmest gratitude for this large amount of very interesting reports. I am especially thankful to the editors Mr. Peter Bissolli and Mr. Peer Hechler from Deutscher Wetterdienst (Department Climate Monitoring) for again taking over the whole task of coordination, editorial review, publishing and distribution of the Bulletin. Daniel Keuerleber-Burk President of WMO Regional Association VI 4 Annual Bulletin on the Climate in WMO Region VI - 2004 Outstanding Events and Anomalies in 2004 Temperature - Very mild in the Arctic regions and in winter in Russia - Record mild temperatures in Central Europe around February 4 - Very mild April in Norway and Sweden - Very warm June in Portugal and Spain - Very mild December in Scandinavia and the Baltic countries Precipitation - Very wet in most parts of Russia - Very dry in Portugal and southern France - High rainfall amounts with flooding in south-eastern countries in January - Severe snowfall in the eastern Mediterranean area in February - Abundant snowfall in the Alps on 23/24 March Sunshine - A very sunny September in Central Europe Wind - Heavy storms in the eastern Mediterranean in January and November - Strong hail and tornadoes in Central and eastern Europe in June - Heavy storm over Central Europe on December 17 Annual Bulletin on the Climate in WMO Region VI 2004 5 Annual Survey Temperature in 2004 was higher than the 1961-1990 average almost everywhere in the Region. In the Arctic (e.g. Svalbard, Jan Mayen), the annual mean temperature was about 2°C above normal. Northern European countries reported averages about 1°C above normal (e.g. Iceland +1.2 - +1.5°C, Norway +1.4°C, Sweden +1.1°C, Latvia and Lithuania +0.7°C), with higher anomalies in the West than in the East. In most of the other countries, the positive anomalies were between +0.5 and +1.0°C, in parts of south-eastern Europe also less than +0.5°C, in some areas of the East also between +1.0 and +2.0°C. Examples for monthly and annual means and/or anomalies are shown for Estonia (Fig. 0.1), Latvia (Fig. 0.2), Belgium (Fig. 0.3), Slovenia (Fig. 0.4), Romania (Fig. 0.5), Armenia (Fig. 0.6) and daily temperatures for Central England (Fig. 0.7). The absolute mean temperature 2004 at Jan Mayen was above zero (0.8°C) and the second highest registered there since measurements started in 1921. In Denmark, although the year was warm like in other countries, the summer came very late. It happened the first time in Denmark since 1874 that the first summer day (maximum temperature >25°C) came as late as on 30 July. Examples for spatial distributions of the annual mean temperature are shown for Norway (Fig. 0.8) and Hungary (Fig. 0.9). In many countries, 2004 was one of the 10 warmest years since measurements started and the annual mean followed the general warming trend, e.g. in Russia (Fig. 0.10) and Denmark (Fig. 0.11). Fig. 0.1: Monthly mean temperature in Estonia 2004 in comparison to the 1961-1990 normal From: Estonian Meteorological & Hydrological Institute 6 Annual Bulletin on the Climate in WMO Region VI - 2004 180 5,0 160 4,0 140 C 3,0 . g 120 e % d , , e e r r u u t 2,0 t r 100 r a a p p e e d d 80 e n 1,0 r o i u t t a a t r i e p 60 i p c 0,0 m e r e T P 40 -1,0 20 0 -2,0 3 4 4 4 r 4 4 r 4 r 4 4 4 4 4 4 g n 0 0 0 0 e 0 0 a 0 e 0 0 0 0 0 0 n t 0 i 0 0 0 0 0 m e 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 r m n 2 2 2 2 2 2 u 2 i 2 2 2 2 2 Y 2 p t I I I I m I I I I I I u I I S I I W I X X V u I V I I X I V X A X V S V Fig. 0.2: Mean air temperature deviation (°C) from normal 1961 1990 (blue dashed line) and precipitation totals in % of the normal in Latvia From: Latvian Environmental, Geological and Meteorological Agency Fig. 0.3: Monthly mean temperatures (°C) 2004, normal values and absolute extremes since 1833 at Uccle (Belgium) From: Institut Royal Météorologique de Belgique Annual Bulletin on the Climate in WMO Region VI 2004 7 3 3 LJUBLJANA MURSKA SOBOTA 2 2 1 1 0 0 -1 -1 TEMPERATURE ANOMALY (°C) -2 TEMPERATURE ANOMALY (°C) -2 -3 -3 JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC 3 3 KREDARICA PORTOROŽ 2 2 1 1 0 0 -1 -1 TEMPERATURE ANOMALY (°C) TEMPERATURE ANOMALY (°C) -2 -2 -3 -3 JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC 3 3 NOVO MESTO BILJE 2 2 1 1 0 0 -1 -1 TEMPERATURE ANOMALY (°C) -2 TEMPERATURE ANOMALY (°C) -2 -3 -3 JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC Fig. 0.4: Monthly mean temperature anomalies 2004 for stations in Slovenia (reference period 1961-1990) From: Environmental Agency of the Republic of Slovenia Fig.