So the feeling is not misleading: It has recently rained an above-average amount. However, a comparison with previous years also makes it clear that such amounts of rain were more common in the spring before 2005. Smieskol from the DWD therefore says: “The amounts of precipitation in recent weeks are in the range of climatologically recurring weather sections for the corresponding season.” Nevertheless, April was too wet in large parts of Germany and Bavaria. According to data from the DWD, 112 liters per square meter fell in Munich, more than it had rained since 1972.
Hoffmann also emphasizes that the amounts of precipitation are within the expected range: “It’s the dose that counts. Even if individual months or seasons are above average, this is definitely within the natural range of fluctuation. It becomes problematic when a rule develops from it.” In Germany, however, the trend is more towards too little precipitation. Exactly how familiar rain patterns are shifting as a result of climate change cannot be said with any certainty. According to Hoffmann, however, it is clear “that extreme weather conditions – sometimes too little, sometimes too much – will continue to increase.”
A pattern can be observed again and again: it rains significantly more in the south of Germany than in the north-east.