weather
The year 2022 was the sunniest since weather records began
Sunbathers enjoy the beautiful weather and sunshine in Baden-Württemberg, which was the sunniest state in 2022
© Marijan Murat / Picture Alliance
The past year gave us more than 2020 hours of sunshine. More than ever since weather recording began. The sunniest place was a town in Baden-Württemberg.
Even if you can hardly believe it at the moment given the ongoing precipitation, but: Last year there were more hours of sunshine than ever before. 2024.1 hours – that’s how long the sun shone last year on average across Germany.
As the German Weather Service announced on Saturday, 2022 was the sunniest year in Germany since regular records began in 1951, i.e. for at least 72 years. On average, the sun shone for an hour and 19 minutes a day, which was 31.1 percent above the annual target. Measured against the internationally valid reference period from 1961 to 1990 with 1544 hours of sunshine, the sun worked an impressive 480 hours overtime.
Weather in Germany: The trend is towards more sunshine
According to weather experts, there has been a trend towards more sunshine in Germany in recent decades. For example, if you only look at the past decade (2011 to 2020), then the sun even shined from the sky for an average of 1734 hours during this period. For comparison: In the sunless year 1977, the sun was in the sky in Germany for just 1362 hours, which corresponds to only about two thirds of the sunshine duration of 2022.
This means that 2022 leads the top 5 sunniest years:
place | Year | sunshine hours |
1 | 2022 | 2024.1 |
2 | 2018 | 2015.4 |
3 | 2003 | 2013.7 |
4 | 1959 | 1984 |
5 | 2020 | 1896 |
As far as the federal states are concerned, the sun shone most frequently in the southwest and south, i.e. in Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. On the other hand, the sun shone less often in the north and northwest, such as in Schleswig-Holstein in Lower Saxony, but also in Thuringia. The sunniest federal state was Baden-Württemberg with 2176.3 hours of sunshine. The federal state with the least amount of sunshine was Schleswig-Holstein with 1933.9 hours of sunshine.
picture book
Sun, light and peaks: The Bavarian Alps look so dreamlike
The sunniest place was Rheinfelden in the extreme southwest of Baden-Württemberg with an unbelievable 2355 hours of sunshine. The sun shone there for an average of 6 hours and 27 minutes a day. It was almost 700 hours less at the sunniest place in Glücksburg-Meierwik near Flensburg. There she only appeared for a total of 1663 hours, i.e. 5 hours and 33 minutes per day.
Source:German Weather Service