The 2024 Year in Review: Too warm, too wet
The warmest year since weather records began in 1881, warmer even than the previous record year 2023: 2.7°C above the long-term average. It was also one of the wettest. Floods and heavy rainfall in January, May, and June. Here is the year in review.
Flooding, warmth. The winter
January. Too mild, hardly any frost. In Lower Saxony, North Rhine–Westphalia and Saxony-Anhalt, floodwaters from Christmas 2023 were still standing. Disaster alerts until January, and in some places in Lower Saxony even longer. The long-awaited frost only arrived in the second half of the month in many regions. Lowest temperature of the year on 20 January: –19.5°C in Leutkirch-Herlazhofen in the Allgäu. Afterwards warming again, up to twelve degrees.
February. Much too mild, very wet. A springlike month, with an average temperature of 6.6°C, it felt like a cool April. Not a single frost day in the west. Nationwide, well above-average rainfall, around two-thirds more than the long-term norm. Water levels in the north remained high. Storm with hurricane-force gusts on the night of the 23rd, causing damage in Schleswig-Holstein.
March. Too warm, too dry. The warmest March since records began, with an average of 7.5°C. Far too little rain, especially in the eastern low mountain ranges and in Western Pomerania, with less than ten litres per square meter. The heaviest rainfall on 12 March in the Black Forest, in Baiersbronn-Ruhestein: 57.8 liters per square meter.
Heat, floods. The spring
April. Too wet, too warm. Summer temperatures and frost days. On 6 April, the first hot day of the year with 30.1°C in the Upper Rhine Valley; in Quedlinburg, the first tropical night with 20°C. Night frosts in the last third of the month causing damage to vines, fruit, and trees. The lowest temperature of –8.8°C on the 23rd in the Ore Mountains. Too much rain in the north, far too little in the east. Half a meter of fresh snow in the Alps in mid-month. Hurricane-force gusts on 15 April in Frankenberg-Geismar (Hesse).
May. Flash floods, far too warm: a flood month. Persistent and heavy rainfall, especially in Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate. Historically unique rainfall amounts flooding Saarbrücken and the entire state. It was Germany’s third-wettest May since records began. Rain and thunderstorms also took place in Baden-Württemberg, Saxony and elsewhere. A lightning strike injuring ten people in Dresden on 20 May. Hardly any rain in parts of Brandenburg.
June. Continuous rain, floods: another flood month. After a rainy May, severe flooding along the Danube and its southern tributaries at the start of June, again due to record rainfall. On 3 June, 137 litres per square meter in Raubling-Pfraundorf (Upper Bavaria). Along the Alps, it rained more than 250 litres. Nationwide there were severe thunderstorms and large hail. In Brandenburg, the weather was too dry.
Storms, heat. The summer
July. Warm, rainy. Short heatwaves followed by violent thunderstorms, heavy rain, severe gusts, and hail. Countless flooded basements and streets on 10 July in Hanau (Hesse). Temperature gradient from cool in the northwest to warm in the southeast. On 10 July, 34.8°C in Bad Muskau (Saxony). Finally, the month brought rain in drought-stricken Brandenburg, two-thirds more than average.
August. Warm, wet. One of the warmest since 1881. Highest temperature of the year on 13 August with 36.5°C in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, the town hit by the severe 2021 flood disaster. Highest rainfall on 1 August in Trendelburg (northern Hesse) with 169.8 litres per square meter. On 13 August, flash floods in Baden-Württemberg, specifically in Bretten, Bruchsal, and Gondelsheim. On 18 August, extreme heavy rain from Dresden to the Eastern Ore Mountains.
September. Hot, very wet. Heat records in the northeast in the first week: 35.2°C on 4 September in Doberlug-Kirchhain (Brandenburg). This was followed by heavy rainfall mid-month, in the east and southeast. Up to 500 litres per square meter in Berchtesgadener Land over the whole month. Up to one meter of snow in the Alps, with risks of avalanche. Along the Oder River, flooding.
Warm, little rain. The autumn
October. The month was first too cool, then too warm, with lots of rain and cool days until mid-month. Highest precipitation was on 9 October in Börfink-Thranenweier (Rhineland-Palatinate) with nearly 65 litres per square meter. Twice as much rain in the west and southwest as in the east, with cold nights. On 15 October, –3.3°C in the Upper Harz followed by summery warmth, two degrees above the long-term October average. On 17 October: 25.6°C in Kiefersfelden-Gach (Bavaria).
November. Too mild, too little rain. This was again a month that was too warm and too dry: 22.3°C on 25 November in Baden-Baden-Geroldsau. Scattered but intense rainfall. Severe snowfall in the Allgäu: up to 40 centimeters of fresh snow. On the North Sea coast, 150 litres rainfall per square meter.
December. Too dry, too mild. A warm Christmas month, with more than three degrees above the long-term average in Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Even on the Brocken, 13.1°C on 28 December: the highest December temperature ever measured there. Overall, too little precipitation, with more than 200 litres per square meter only in the Alps and the Black Forest.