After several months of drought, summer weather in the outdoor pool is already underway in May: The German Weather Service (DWD) is forecasting maximum temperatures of 28 degrees on Tuesday in Berlin and Brandenburg. Even if clouds appear, it should not rain. Wednesday is expected to be cloudy. In Brandenburg, temperatures are expected between 23 and 26 degrees, and the maximum temperature in Berlin is expected to be between 26 and 29 degrees.
Meteorologists talk about a summer day above 25 degrees. What seems fun at the moment, the temptation to visit the outdoor pool or ice cream parlor, turns out to be a problem when you broaden your perspective.
“The amount of rain so far this year hasn’t been so low that one can actually speak of a disaster,” Dirk Elert of the Senate Department of Environment, Mobility, Consumer Protection and Climate said Tuesday on request. But you have to take the situation seriously. We already have a deficit this year – not to mention that the severe drought in our region from 2018 to 2020 has yet to be compensated.”
Trees don’t do well, Ellert said: “What applies in the forest applies even more so to trees in the city.” Although this year’s drought has not yet caused immediately visible damage to trees, this may be the case in later years. “Trees need a lot of fluid to grow leaves in the spring. If it’s really dry for a year or two, that’s tolerable for the tree. But then it needs years of moisture to recover.”
Soil moisture data from a sample site in Neukölln, Provided by the Online Plant Protection Bureaushows that the value at a depth of 85 cm has currently fallen to a critical level – reached only a month later in 2021.
Forecast values do not indicate any improvement in the next few days. Once the curve drops into the red, which it did repeatedly last year between June and September, “additional watering, depending on the type and size of the plant, will make sense,” writes the Bureau of Plant Protection.
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March 2022 was the fourth dry month since 1908
As a result of climate change, precipitation is decreasing in Berlin and drought is increasing: the region is threatened by the fifth consecutive drought year. According to DWD data, 30 liters of rain per square meter was recorded in Berlin in April – lower than the international reference period average from 1961 to 1990, which is 40 liters per square metre. This rain is concentrated in a few days.
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March was even more out of the ordinary with only one liter of rain per square metre, and the comparative value was given of 37. This was the fourth driest month since weather records began in 1908. Also in February, DWD Berlin was one of the driest.
This also keeps the debate about the right climate policy going. In the Climate Protection and Energy Transition Act, Berlin committed itself to becoming climate neutral by 2045 by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The “Climate Neutral Berlin 2030” referendum calls for achieving this goal 15 years ago. However, the Senate refuses to tighten the existing requirements.
“We must now use all our power to come up with really effective and tangible measures for climate protection and climate adaptation in critical sectors in Berlin – rather than just writing new climate protection targets into laws,” said Senator for Environment Bettina Garach (Greens). At the beginning of May. (teaspoon, despa)
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