Temperature record in Bavaria: Oldest weather station in the world measures the warmest New Year's Eve since the beginning of the record

Created: 01/10/2022, 4:41 PM

Golden December: There were wonderful sunsets in the last month of the year.

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The last month of 2021 brought snow and ice on the one hand, and summer warmth on the other.

New Year's Eve was the warmest since records began on the Hohen Peißenberg in Bavaria.

Hohenpeißenberg

- After the snowstorm on November 30th, the last day of autumn, the first month of winter began very mildly, because after a storm low, mild Atlantic air temporarily entered our region.

The temperatures rose to eight degrees (always Celsius) and the snow cover had almost completely melted away on December 2nd.

Then the current turned back to northwest very quickly, which meant cold and wet weather for the lower Alpine foothills.

On the Hoher Peißenberg there were changing days of frost, that is, the temperatures were a little over zero degrees during the day and below zero at night.

On December 3rd, a blanket of snow formed again, which lasted until the 23rd.

Weather in Bavaria: Heavy snowfall before Christmas - white ceiling in the Alps up to one meter high

The weather situation was exciting for meteorologists on December 8th. A low over northern Italy and the Alpine region moved from the Allgäu into the Alpine foothills, so it snowed heavily all day at times. The snow cover increased to 25 centimeters by December 10th. For a few days it was deep winter. Even in the lowlands of the eastern federal states there was temporarily five to ten centimeters of snow. The Arber reported a snow depth of 50 centimeters, in the Alps there was 50 to 100 centimeters of snow.

During the second decade a southwesterly current prevailed.

Mostly there were days of changing frost again.

From December 13th to 23rd it was dry.

There were short hair dryer inserts with a clear view on December 13th, 14th and 17th. December 19th, the fourth Sunday of Advent, was a cloudless, clear winter day.

Cold air prevailed for three days with a north current.

Therefore, the 21st was also the coldest day in December - the daily mean was minus 5.3 degrees.

There were days with a mix of fog and sea of ​​clouds.

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“Christmas thaw” in Bavaria also in 2021: Hardly any sun and temperatures above the holidays

From December 23rd, as so often, the “Christmas thaw” prevailed punctually - mild Atlantic air from the south-westerly ensured this. The night before, the hair dryer and the thaw set in. The humidity was only between 17 and 20 percent. It remained frost-free until the end of the month. The last remaining snow on the Hoher Peißenberg had melted away punctually on Christmas Eve. The three days of Christmas were gloomy, mild, rainy and stormy. The sun only showed up for six minutes on those three days. The daytime temperatures were between four and seven degrees.

However, a borderline weather situation had developed over Christmas, because very cold air from Russia pushed through Scandinavia to the middle of Germany.

This led to large temperature differences in Germany.

While the daily maximums on Christmas Day on the Upper Rhine were plus 11 degrees, permafrost prevailed in the north and east - at night the temperatures fell to minus 19 degrees.

Warmest New Year's Eve since measurements began: record temperature in Bavaria

After Christmas, the temperatures rose steadily with the very mild south-westerly current from the direction of the Azores. It rained every day from December 24th to December 30th. New Year's Eve offered some compensation for the Christmas weather with cloudless weather. Above all, the daily maximum of 14.5 degrees represented an absolute temperature record, because never since 1781 has there been such a warm New Year's Eve on the Hoher Peißenberg.

In terms of temperature, December 31, 2021 corresponded to the supercooled July 1, 2021 - the same daily maximum and temperature mean. In August 2021, with its normal temperature, it was 10.2 degrees Celsius compared to the daily mean temperature on New Year's Eve, and even colder on four days. A daily maximum of 14.5 degrees is occasionally not reached even on some summer days. Last August it was seven days below. The tendency towards ever new heat record values ​​can be dangerous in times of climate change. With appropriate weather conditions, the maximum temperatures can quickly rise to over 40 degrees and last for days, especially in increasingly stationary weather conditions. That could drive the death rate to unprecedented levels.

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Weather in Bavaria: December 2021 is much too warm and with less precipitation

Overall, December was 1.8 degrees too warm with a monthly mean temperature of 1.3 degrees. On 19 days the minimum temperatures were below 0 degrees (frost days). Seven days were ice days (maximum temperatures below 0 degrees). The warmest day was December 31st with 14.5 degrees, the coldest was December 22nd with - 7.8 degrees. In December, 76 liters of precipitation per square meter fell on the Hohen Peißenberg, 115 percent of the amount expected over the long term. There was 15 percent less precipitation than the average for the reference period 1961 to 1990. There was a snow cover on 22 days, the highest with 25 centimeters on December 10th. The sun adhered exactly to the “specifications” and shone for 86 hours, which corresponds to the long-term average. It did not appear for six days. The highest wind peak was on 28.December measured at 26 meters per second or 94 kilometers per hour.

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