Berlin sunniest, Frankfurt warmest in Germany’s hottest year on record

From the entire country selling out of pedestal fans to marauding gangs of rogue wasps, the heatwave was felt by millions across Germany.

With the year about to end, scientific data illustrates just how hot and long the summer actually was.

The records show that 2018 was both the sunniest and the warmest year in German history.

Two of Germany’s biggest and most populous cities – Berlin and Frankfurt – have been named as the sunniest and warmest points respectively.

Frankfurt recorded the highest average temperature across the year with 12.9 degrees celsius in 2018. It overtook the previous record of 12.8 degrees celsius which was recorded in Freiburg in the year 2000.

Somewhat surprisingly for a city known for being grey, Berlin was the sunniest city in Germany. The sun shone for 2,308 hours in 2018, in data recorded up to December 26.

If the sun keeps shining up until the new year, Berlin might break the record held by the Klippeneck measuring station in Baden-Württemberg from 1959 of 2,329 hours of sunlight. Only 21 hours of sun is needed across the final week of the year to officially crown Berlin’s 2018 as the sunniest in German history.

The driest point in Germany was Halle (Saale) with a recorded rainfall of 266.7 litres per square metre.

Temperature records across Germany have been kept since 1881, while the records for sunshine data date back to 1951.   

Article source: https://www.thelocal.de/20181228/berlin-germanys-sunniest-city-in-2018-frankfurt-the-warmest