15th month in a row

August is also the warmest in recorded history

(Bild: AFP)

Unsurprisingly, August 2024 was another month in the series of "warmest months in recorded history". It was 3.0 degrees above the average for the 1991 to 2020 climate period in Austria's lowlands and 3.3 degrees in the summit regions, Geosphere climatologist Hans Ressl summarized in Monday's report. August is also the fifteenth month in a row that is above average. The last relatively cool month was May 2023.

In the lowlands, August was therefore the warmest August in the 258-year measurement history and in the mountains it was also the warmest in the 174-year mountain measurement series. Compared to the climate period from 1961 to 1990, which was not yet so severely affected by global warming, the deviations were even more extreme at 4.8 degrees in the lowlands and 5.1 degrees in the mountains.

First frost-free month in Salzburg
The number of hot days with at least 30 degrees was also extreme, occurring two to three times more frequently this year than in an average August. For the time being, no records have been broken, only Eisenstadt, with 19 hot days, achieved the same value as in the record year 1992. However, there was a record at altitude, because at the Sonnblick Observatory of the Geosphere at over 3100 meters above sea level in the Hohe Tauern in Salzburg, no day with temperatures below zero degrees was recorded this August - making it the first frost-free month since measurements began in 1886.

A dip in the cool water made the record heat in August more or less bearable.

(Bild: Scharinger Daniel)

Heavy rain triggered many floods and mudslides
The eighth month of the year was characterized by long dry phases, only interrupted by a few heavy thunderstorms with heavy rainfall, which caused flooding and mudslides in places. In the Austria-wide evaluation, there was 29 percent less precipitation than in an average August. The last time it was similarly dry in this month was in 2019 (minus 25 percent) and even drier was 2015 (minus 41 percent).

Due to an exceptional heavy rainfall event in the middle of the month, Vienna was the only federal state with six percent more rain than in an average August. The number of hours of sunshine in the Austria-wide monthly evaluation was ten percent above the long-term average.