Warmest spring in recorded history Debris.com

Aside from above average temperatures, there was also above average precipitation. According to preliminary atmospheric statistics, this spring will be the third consecutive extremely hot season.

According to preliminary results from Gesopher Austria, the meteorological spring of 2024 was the warmest in the history of Austrian measurement, and therefore the third extremely hot season in a row. In the lowlands, temperatures were 1.9 degrees higher than average in the 1991 to 2020 climate period. On Friday, rainfall was said to be 20 percent higher than average, and hours of sunshine were 9 percent lower than Average.

In the summit areas, temperatures were 1.6 degrees Celsius higher than average, marking third place in the mountain's 174-year series of measurements. Both in the Lowlands and the 258-year history of measurements, as well as throughout Austria, the three months of March, April and Maine have never been so warm on average. However, there was a very cold phase – in the second half of April.

Warmest springs in recent memory

The ten warmest springs in the Lowland Measurement Series (HISTALP dataset) that have been in existence since 1767 were almost all in the recent past: 2024, 2018, 2017, 2014, 2011, 2009, 2007, 2000, 1811, 1794. 1794. We are only seeing very warm springs and almost never very cold ones,” said Alexander Orlik, an atmospheric climatologist. “There were also very warm springs in 1794 and 1811, but those were very extreme cases. At that time, there were many years when the springs were very cold, and the overall temperature level at one of the springs was about two degrees cooler than it is today.”

The winter weather phase in April slowed plant growth and caused frost damage to wine and apricot crops for example. In the previous two months, plants' development had accelerated to the point that some of them had their earliest flowering date since the observation period began in 1946. Apricot blooms were about three weeks ahead of the 1991-2020 average, and apple, lilac, and blackberry blooms also reached their closest start date. Its been since 1946 this year.

Above average rain

The three meteorological months of spring also brought above-average precipitation. Overall, in the Austria-wide assessment in 2024, this was about 20 percent higher than the long-term average. Spring 2024 was the fifth consecutive wetter than average season (since spring 2023).

The regional precipitation assessment for spring 2024 shows clear differences. In the area stretching from the Tyrolean lowlands through Salzburg and Upper Austria to Weinviertel, there were average to slightly dry conditions (plus 15 to minus 25 percent). However, it was noticeably very humid in most of western and southern Austria (from 15 to over 75 percent) and in Upper Carinthia (over 90 percent in some cases).

Severe storms and hurricane

Storms were also recorded. As a result of strong thunderstorms, there was a tornado in both Graz Eggenberg (Styria) and Schattendorf (Burgenland) on 21 May 2024. In both cases, winds of up to 120 km/h caused some damage, such as uprooting trees and partially covering roofs.

According to Geosphere, tornadoes are not as rare in Austria as commonly assumed. Largely complete data have existed since 1998, when systematic analyzes of potential hurricane damage began. Since then, there has been an average of four hurricanes per year in Austria. Annual fluctuations are large and range from unknown cases (2008) to seven known cases (2004 and 2023). (Abba)