It’s getting even hotter in Germany: On Thursday, the temperatures will reach up to 39 degrees, “which at the same time marks the peak of the heat wave,” said meteorologist Tobias Reinartz from the German Weather Service on Wednesday.
Thunderstorms, some severe, can bring temporary cooling on Thursday and Friday, but then it will remain summery and warm in many places.
Coal phase-out, climate change, sector coupling: The briefing for the energy and climate sector. For decision makers
For Thursday, the DWD warned of strong and sometimes extreme heat stress in the Upper Rhine Graben. The experts recommend drinking enough water, avoiding direct sun and physical exertion, and keeping your home cool.
According to forecasts, there may be locally severe showers and thunderstorms in the west and north-west on Thursday. There is a local risk of heavy rain, hail and heavy gusts of wind. Otherwise there is a lot of sunshine with at most harmless cumulus clouds.
Maximum temperatures are in the northwest and near the Baltic Sea at 25 to 32 degrees, otherwise, according to the DWD, it gets very hot at 32 to 39 degrees – with the highest values ​​in the southwest and in the southern center.
On Friday the sky will be heavily overcast in a wide strip from the south-west to the north-east. Then there can be sometimes heavy showers and thunderstorms, which gradually shift to the south-east. In the southeast, the day often starts sunny at first, later the risk of thunderstorms increases with a local risk of severe weather.
In the north-west, on the other hand, the sky is becoming increasingly loose with partly longer sunny periods, there can only be showers near the North Sea. The maximum values ​​are in the north-west half at 20 to 28 degrees, in the south-east half it gets hot again at 29 to 35 degrees.
“On Saturday, showers and thunderstorms will also clear the hot air in the south and south-east. It stays warm there at 25 to 30 degrees,” said meteorologist Reinartz. It stays cooler in the north.
Thanks to Hoch Oskar, the weather is calming down: “So Sunday and the beginning of the new week will also be calm, increasingly warm again in the north and unfortunately mostly dry overall.”
The persistent drought and the lack of rain continue to ensure low water levels in the Spree and Schwarze Elster. A transnational group of experts has therefore taken further measures to support water bodies, as announced by the Brandenburg Ministry of the Environment on Tuesday.
In order to further improve the situation, attempts have been made since Monday to reduce the high water losses by slightly lowering the water levels in several areas. This is intended to achieve a higher discharge level at the exit of the Spreewald in August. If the measure does not work, more would have to follow.
Then there could be severe restrictions in the Spreewald area, as the working group further announced. Backwaters could then dry up, and passage through locks would be restricted.
France is now officially suffering from drought across the country. As the last area in the country, the authorities classified the capital Paris and its surroundings as dry on Tuesday. The weather service Météo-France announced that temperatures between 34 and 38 degrees are to be expected in France on Wednesday and Thursday, in some places even 40 degrees.
This new heat wave is therefore likely to be shorter and less intense than the heat wave in mid-July. However, the renewed high temperatures make it clear how climate change is affecting us.
