The year 2023 brought the hottest summer on Earth since weather observations began. Heat, rain, fires: too much of everything. Weather expert Frank Böttcher on an extreme weather year.
By Frank Böttcher
The corks are popping, people are hugging each other and celebrating New Year’s Eve. It is one o’clock at night on the first day of this memorable climate year 2023. The thermometers in the warmest place in Germany (Hoyerswerda) show 18.0 degrees. A summer night, in the middle of winter. The first records of this year are falling while we are still celebrating wildly: Berlin reports 16 degrees, from Hamburg to Hanover and Cologne to Baden-Baden it is 17 degrees in many places. It has never been so warm on a New Year’s night in Germany.