It's getting hotter and hotter

The first major heatwave ended with a record

The heatwave in two pictures: Storm damage in the Lavant Valley and swimming fun in Lake Wörthersee.

(Bild: Pressestelle Stadtgemeinde Wolfsberg/Uta Rojsek-Wiedergut/Krone KREATIV)

For eleven days in a row, 30 degrees were measured in Klagenfurt. That's never happened before. The sweltering heat is now over for the time being. But the tropical summer could return in the next few days.

Between 1961 and 1990, Carinthia experienced an average of six so-called hot days per year. This year, in the first half of the summer alone, 15 days were recorded in Klagenfurt on which the thermometer read over 30 degrees, eleven of them in a row. "That really is a new record. So far, there have been a maximum of ten consecutive days. In Ferlach there were even twelve this year," explains meteorologist Paul Rainer from GeoSphere. "In 2010, 16 hot days in a row were measured there."

It's getting hotter and hotter
In general, the temperature trend is clearly pointing upwards (see graph), although the extreme heat records were set a few years ago. The 38.1 degrees on July 28, 2013, for example, has (fortunately) never been reached before. And the record summer of 2003, with its 40 hot days, has so far only been equaled by the summer of 2015 with 34.

(Bild: GeoSphere Austria, eigene Berechnungen)

But what is the trend this year? After all, with 15 hot days, we are only three days behind 2003. "Temperatures are likely to be more moderate for the time being. We could reach 30 degrees on Sunday and Monday, then it will cool down and only get warmer again at the weekend," says Rainer. "But in August there could be another hot spell. It's usually constantly hot during the dog days."

Heat causes thunderstorms
Even if we all want a sunny summer, cooling off is definitely helpful. After all, bright sunshine and hot air not only cause dryness and an increased risk of forest fires. As the past few days and even more so the past few summers have shown, the heat also brings storms with it time and again. The millions in damage caused by storms, floods and hail are a direct result of the "charged" air. The hotter, the more evaporation, which in turn leads to huge storm fronts that then unload their masses of water over Carinthia.