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Germany Breaks All-Time Record
Highs for Early March, Aswan Egypt Experiences First Rainfall
Since 2012
(Germany’s
March 9 heat wave set off 22 all-time high temperature records —
shown in star pattern outlines. Temperatures shown are in degrees
Celsius. Image source: WetterOnline.)
13 March, 214
According to reports from WeatherUnderground and WetterOnline, Germany experienced some of its hottest ever recorded temperatures for early March last week.
A large region including a swath of cities stretching from the northern coastline into the heartland and on toward the French border all saw records — some of which had lasted since the 1890s — fall. The heat pulse was enough to push readings into the upper 50s, 60s, and even the low 70s (F) for some regions. A set of highs extraordinary for a Germany that typically sees daytime temperatures ranging from near freezing to the low 40s this time of year.
Such a surge of warm air was enough to shatter more than 20 long-standing records by as much as 5.9 degrees (F). An unprecedented outbreak of March heat which set trees to blooming and spurred Germans on toward local waterfronts.
Some
of the official new records for early March included:
Munster
22.4°C (72.3°F) former record 19.1°C (66.4°F)
Koln/Bonn
21.1°C (70.0°F) former record 19.8°C (67.6°F)
Dusseldorf
20.9°C (69.6°F) former record 20.2°C (68.4°F)
Aachen
20.8°C (69.4°F) former record 20.2°C (68.4°F) POR back to 1891
Hannover
20.2°C (68.4°F) former record 18.4°C (65.1°F)
Hamburg
20.0°C (68.0°F) former record 17.6°C (63.7°F) POR back to 1891
Bremen
19.5°C (67.1°F) former record 18.2°C (64.8°F) POR back to 1890
Kiel
19.3°C (66.7°F) former record 16.7°C (62.1F)
Bremerhaven
18.7°C (65.7°F) former record 16.5°C (61.7°F)
Helgoland
10.6°C (51.1°F) former record 10.5°C (50.9°F)
Mangled
Jet Stream, German Heat, Egyptian Storms
Much
of Central, Southern and Eastern Europe has been under the influence
of a persistent high amplitude Jet Stream wave pattern throughout
late winter. This pattern has consistently dredged warmer air up from
North Africa and the Mediterranean and flung it over Spain, France,
Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Balkans, Poland and Ukraine. The
result has been much warmer than normal conditions for this region.
On
Sunday, the pattern amplified pushing a center of much warmer than
normal air directly over Germany — setting off new record high
temperatures for early March. It is a Jet Stream pattern that remains
in place today and one that may amplify with the heat of summer
putting Central and Eastern Europe and Western Russia under the guy
potential droughts, heatwaves and fires come summer time. A set of
conditions that may further exacerbate already strained global food
markets, economic and political tensions.
(High amplitude Rossby type wave pattern brings record heat to Germany, record rains to Aswan Egypt. Image source: The University of Washington.)
Returning
to early March conditions, the front side of this high amplitude wave
pushed a deep trough down through Eastern Ukraine and Russia formed a
cut-off low over Greece and accelerated the Jet Stream flow to the
south. The result was a high amount of atmospheric instability in a
rather unusual place.
Moisture
flooding in off the Mediterranean flooded into the storm flow that
was now centering over one of the driest places on Earth — northern
Egypt. By March 9-10, the pattern had erupted into a series of freak
thunderstorms that belched thunder, lightning, hail and record
rainfall over this typically parched section of Egypt. In total,
Luxor, the city of the famed Valley of the Kings, received nearly 1.2
inches of rainfall. This is nearly 30 times the average yearly
rainfall for this desert land, which it received in just one day.
Nearby,
Aswan received a stunning .6 inches of rainfall, the first rains seen
for this region since 2012 and also a new record.
Events
Sunday in both Egypt and Germany are not without their broader
context in a world shoved toward increasingly severe weather by
human-caused climate change. This year, the world over is
experiencing a string of highly anomalous storms, heatwaves,
droughts, cold snaps and floods.
An ongoing occurrence that for some regions has resulted in a 500%
amplification of climate extremes.
Unfortunately,
with El Nino about to give its dark gift of ocean warming back to the
atmosphere and with ice sheets in both hemispheres just starting
their cycles of catastrophic melt, the increased intensity of weather
and climate anomaly has only just initiated.
Links:
Hat
Tip to Colorado Bob!
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