Tuesday, February 3
There hasn’t been a January that cold in Berlin for 16 years. According to the German Weather Service (DWD), the average temperature was minus 1.9 degrees.
Of course, climate change plays a role, although such change does not happen in uniform steps. To RBB, Torsten Walter from the ARD weather competence center said, “Even in times of climate change, there are still isolated cold winters. However, not as frequent as they used to be.” He added that, “There will still be these cold outliers in ten or 20 years. But in between, the winters are getting milder and milder.”
Even though this is so far a very cold winter, DWD data shows that it is becoming less and less common. Since 1997, there have only been ten average negative values for January, and in the past 30 years, January has fallen below the climate reference value (-1.5 degrees) only five times. This is a significant decrease compared to the turn of the 19th century.
Additionally, data shows that this January was much sunnier than usual. In Berlin, the sun shone for 60 hours in January, compared to the common number of 43 to 44 hours of sunshine. It rained less, too. They measured 24 liters of precipitation per square meter, about half of the climate medium of 40-42 liters.
As Berlin saw a particularly frosty January, globally, other regions are experiencing exceptional situations. For example, Florida is seeing the kind of snowstorms and low temperatures they haven’t seen in 40 years. Meanwhile, the West Coast is having a heatwave, with temperatures far too hot for the winter.
Ultimately, Berlin’s January was an exception on the tumultuous road of climate change.
