Today will be the last day that Europe will be the main focus of attention. This is fantastic news for my European friends, meaning that while still very hot in some locations, the main heat crisis is over. I’ll just be presenting mote summaries before touching on where the next anomalous heat wave will occur, in of all places Alaska. Here is the last great summery from Weather Underground:
Quoting Dr. Jeff Masters:
More than 30 locations in Central Europe—including towns and cities in Denmark, France, Germany, and Poland—set all-time heat records on Sunday as the continent’s historic June heat wave of 2019 shifted eastward. Three nations set all-time heat records for the month of June on Sunday: Germany, Switzerland, and Lichtenstein. The heat wave is easing on Monday, thankfully, as a cold front moves eastward over Central Europe.
In a separate heat wave, Sunday was the hottest day in recorded history for the Caribbean nation of Cuba, which recorded an all-time heat mark of 39.1°C (102.4°F) at Veguitas. Thanks go to weather records experts Jérôme Reynaud for this information.
In Germany alone, there were 34 all-time heat records on Sunday, and at least 243 stations saw their hottest June temperature on record, according to statistics compiled by German meteorologist Michael Theusner. Many of the June records in Germany were broken by impressive margins of 1.5–2.5°C (2.7–4.5°F), which testifies to the exceptional nature of the heat (as already noted in France, where more than a dozen stations on Friday broke that nation’s previous all-time high).
At the river Saale in Bernburg, Germany, a scorching high of 39.6°C (103.3°F) on Sunday was not only that station’s hottest temperature on any date in records going back to 1898, but the hottest temperature ever observed anywhere in Germany during any June. According to Theusner, the station’s previous all-time record was set just a year ago—with 39.5°C on July 31, 2018—and its previous June record was set just last Wednesday, with 36.5°C.
Below is a sampling compiled by Theusner of the all-time heat records set in Germany on Sunday, including the previous all-time and June records and the year that each station’s period of record (POR) begins. At the top of the list are the three oldest stations in Germany with reliable long-term datasets, one of them going back almost 200 years. Each broke its all-time record high on Sunday.
Jena Astronomical Observatory: 38.8°C (101.8°F) (old records 38.7°C on 7 August 2015, 37.1°C on 26 June 2019, 35.8°C on 24 June 2016; POR 1824)
Putbus: 35.8°C (96.4°F) (old records 34.7°C on 8 August 2018, 34.2°C on 21 June 2000; POR 1853)
Leipzig-Holzhausen: 38.4°C (101.1°F) (old records 38.0°C on 3 August 1943, 36.4°C on 30 June 1957; POR 1863)
Geisenheim: 38.7°C (101.7°F) (old records 38.2°C on 7 August 2015, 37.3 on 27 June 1947; POR 1884)
Marnitz: 37.1°C (98.8°F) (old records 36.8°C on 4 July 2015, 35.8°C on 20 June 2000; POR 1902)
Dillenburg: 39.0°C (102.2°F) (old records 38.4°C on 4 July 2015, 36.7°C on 26 June 2019, 35.1°C on 18 June 2002; POR 1947)
Frankfurt/Main (Frankfort Airport): 39.3°C (102.7°F) (old records 38.8°C on 5 July 2015, 37.5°C on 18 June 2002/26 June 2019; POR 1949)
Elsewhere across Europe
The parade of heat records on Sunday extended well beyond Germany. In Prague, Czech Republic, the station at the Clementinum complex—one of the world’s most venerable weather recording sites, with continuous data going back to 1775—set its all-time high on Sunday with 37.9°C (100.2°F), just above the 37.8°C recorded in 1983 and 2013.
In Austria, downtown Innsbruck set an all-time high with 38.5°C (101.3°F). The Austrian city of Krems also set its all-time high with the same value, according to weather records researcher Maximiliano Herrera.
In Denmark, Copenhagen’s Kastrup Airport, where records go back nearly a century, tied its all-time hottest reading with 31.7°C (89.1°F).
Sunday’s reading of 37.0°C (98.6°F) at Sion, Switzerland, marked a new nationwide heat record for June.
The high of 37.1°C (98.8°F) at Balzers, Lichtenstein, on Sunday was a June record and the second hottest temperature on record for that nation, according to Herrera.
Although the heat peaked on Friday across most of France, the nation’s easternmost big city—Strasburg, just across the Rhine River from Germany—set its all-time high of Sunday with a reading of 38.8°C (101.8°F).
Elsewhere across Europe
The parade of heat records on Sunday extended well beyond Germany. In Prague, Czech Republic, the station at the Clementinum complex—one of the world’s most venerable weather recording sites, with continuous data going back to 1775—set its all-time high on Sunday with 37.9°C (100.2°F), just above the 37.8°C recorded in 1983 and 2013.
In Austria, downtown Innsbruck set an all-time high with 38.5°C (101.3°F). The Austrian city of Krems also set its all-time high with the same value, according to weather records researcher Maximiliano Herrera.
In Denmark, Copenhagen’s Kastrup Airport, where records go back nearly a century, tied its all-time hottest reading with 31.7°C (89.1°F).
Sunday’s reading of 37.0°C (98.6°F) at Sion, Switzerland, marked a new nationwide heat record for June.
The high of 37.1°C (98.8°F) at Balzers, Lichtenstein, on Sunday was a June record and the second hottest temperature on record for that nation, according to Herrera.
Although the heat peaked on Friday across most of France, the nation’s easternmost big city—Strasburg, just across the Rhine River from Germany—set its all-time high of Sunday with a reading of 38.8°C (101.8°F).
Figure 1. The Weather Company’s outlook for temperatures across Europe in July (left) and August (right). Image credit: TWC/Todd Crawford.
More rounds of intense heat may plague Europe later this summer
The past week’s incredible early-season heat in Europe could be followed by some unfortunate sequels later this summer. Seasonal outlooks produced last week by The Weather Company (TWC) show a high likelihood of hotter-than-average temperatures in both July and August—typically the hottest months of the year—across much of central and eastern Europe.
The TWC outlook cites a record-negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), together with a persistent cold pool over the far North Atlantic waters, as factors that may persist through the summer, favoring recurrent episodes of intense heat over central and eastern Europe. Most years with negative NAO phases in May and June see similar conditions in July and August, notes Todd Crawford (@tcrawf_nh), who leads TWC’s seasonal prediction activities.
We will continue to be vigalent for more heat in Europe during this now torrid summer of 2019.
Now our attention turns to the next suspect area for very extreme, anomalous heat, Alaska. Already we saw in June record warmth across many portions of that state:
I became alerted to the attention of all-time heat across portions of Alaska during the first week of July from Penn State ensemble graphics. Here is what we see during the hottest “heat dome” day on Saturday:
The above chart depicts an extremely odd looking pattern, one that I am not accustomed to seeing in July during my 35+ year career, especially around the Arctic area. It’s almost as if the warm air aloft was transferring from Europe through the North Pole into Alaska.
I’ll probably have many more hot Alaskan notes to report by this weekend.
Here is more climate and weather news from Monday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article.)
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Guy Walton- “The Climate Guy”