The German Weather Service is publishing its preliminary annual balance today. A record has already been set: 2023 was the warmest year in Germany since records began in 1881, as a spokesman announced five days before the end of the calendar year. The average temperature is expected to be 10.6 degrees.
It had already been exceptionally warm in Germany in 2022: with an annual mean temperature of 10.5 degrees Celsius, 2022 was on a par with the then record holder 2018. In the preliminary annual balance for 2023, the DWD provides not only the temperature but also information such as precipitation and duration of sunshine. It lists weather extremes and special features and looks at the situation in individual federal states.
Globally, 2023 was also the hottest year on record, according to the EU climate change service Copernicus. It is practically impossible that December will change anything, Copernicus had already announced on December 6th at the halfway point of the World Climate Conference.
According to Copernicus, global average temperatures were 1.46 degrees above the pre-industrial reference period from 1850 to 1900. So far, 2023 has been 0.13 degrees warmer than the first eleven months of the previous record year 2016.
According to an evaluation by meteorologists, the warm Christmas holidays in 2023 did not set a nationwide record. There was only a local record for Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria: an average temperature of 16.1 degrees was measured there over the holidays from December 24th to 26th. In 2013 it was significantly warmer on the edge of the Alps.
