Heat: Weather Service Records One of the Warmest Summers

Germany has recorded one of its warmest summers since nationwide measurements began, but the German Weather Service said the most unusual feature was the scale of the extremes. Heat and drought stood out in particular.

A June heatwave pushed temperatures well above 40 degrees Celsius in some periods. Tropical nights offered little relief after sunset. The German Weather Service said an attribution study found that a heatwave of this magnitude would have been statistically impossible without climate change.

The study method estimates how human-caused climate change alters the likelihood and intensity of individual weather and climate extremes. The summer was also especially dry in western and southwestern Germany. The weather service expects it to rank among the sunniest summers in recorded data.

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The extremes in particular were striking and unusual.

The persistent drought caused Rhine water levels to fall sharply at times. Cargo ships were temporarily unable to operate, or could travel only without loads. In August, a major fire burned for a week in the Hürtgenwald forest in the Eifel region.

Heat also brought a heavy human toll. The Robert Koch Institute estimated that about 15,800 people had died from heat by mid-August, describing the figure as a conservative estimate. About 9,600 deaths occurred during the extreme heat at the end of June, while another 4,000 were linked to high temperatures during the first two weeks of August.

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Without climate change, a heatwave of this magnitude would have been statistically impossible.