Ready, get set, pack your sunscreen, towel and bathing suit – because summer seems to be starting at the weekend. According to the German Weather Service (DWD), it will be up to 27 degrees Celsius in Munich on Saturday. On Sunday temperatures could rise even further, to 29 degrees. A full bank of the Isar and a lack of seats in the English Garden are to be expected on both days.
Will 2024 be as warm as 2023? Last year was the warmest since weather records began. Andreas Becker, head of the climate monitoring department at the DWD, explains in his climate status report: It was not due to summer heat waves, but rather to mild autumn and winter temperatures.
One thing is clear: “April, April, he does what he wants.” Temperatures of up to 29 degrees – but that is a new high. Guido Wolz, meteorologist and head of the regional weather advisory department at the DWD in Munich, speaks of a “temperature explosion”.
It looks like a decade record for Bavaria and also for the city of Munich, says Wolz. So after a temperature record for the first third of April. Weather experts divide the months into decades, each of which is ten days long. So far the record for the first decade of April in Munich is 25.2 degrees. This cannot be equated with the April monthly record, which was 32.2 degrees in 2012 and is unlikely to be broken now.
According to Wolz, the warm weather can be attributed to a southwesterly flow – this is where the warmest, subtropical air masses come from. In addition, Munich is under the influence of high pressure. The position of the sun is also increasing. “At the weekend there are midsummer temperatures in Bavaria,” says Wolz. The heat wave is nevertheless exceptional; the previous high in the first decade of April was 26.7 degrees in Bavaria and dates back to 2011.
What is the Sahara dust doing?
At Easter, a special natural phenomenon was experienced in some parts of Germany: Sahara dust. Things will look less bad in Munich this weekend, but the southwest current will bring Sahara dust into the city, especially on Sunday. “It’s still not comparable to the last event,” said Wolz.
Most of the fine sand will settle in the west, but on Saturday the sunshine will be clear apart from a few clouds. On Sunday, however, clouds could form from numerous dust particles from condensation and ice nuclei – and slightly dim the sun’s radiation. “So the maximum values are perhaps one or two degrees lower than in a cloudless sky,” says meteorologist Wolz.
Even if the sun doesn’t shine brightly all day, don’t forget sunscreen and drink enough water. And then, off to the Isar! But be careful: According to the Bavarian State Office for the Environment, the water is currently just under nine degrees.