In 2021, Germany was too warm, too wet

Germany's weather in 2021 was clearly in line with the trend of global warming, the German Weather Service (DWD) said on Tuesday.

It said the average temperature for the year was around 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than that of the reference period of 1961 to 1990, with 2021 the 11th year in a row to be too warm.

According to the DWD, each decade has been warmer that the previous one since the 1970s.

What else did the meteorologists say?

Andreas Becker, the head of the climate monitoring department, said 2021 would, however, not be remembered by most people for its unusually high temperatures and dryness but rather for the deadly floods in western Germany in July. 

He said the particularly catastrophic flooding in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate showed how vulnerable Germany was to extreme weather events.

"We must be better prepared for such events in future," Becker said.

He added that a team of international climate experts under the direction of the DWD had established that such extreme events in the region had become 1.9 to nine times more likely owing to human-induced climate change.

"The change in climate is becoming ever more directly tangible for us all," Becker said.

"It is no longer an abstract statistical parameter and shows that ambitious climate protection is also in the national interest," he said.

However, Becker said that in 2021 a summer that was wetter than average was followed by a fall that was much drier than average, meaning that annual precipitation was around the normal amount.

Referring to the ongoing war in Ukraine, which has highlighted German dependence on Russian oil and gas, Becker said reducing reliance on fossil-fuel sources was important not only for the sake of the climate but also "had a security component."