| Month |
YEAR 2002 |
Temp |
Rain |
Sun |
| January
|
A month of two halves: the first half strongly anticyclonic and dry with a prolonged spell of intense inversion with very hard frost in low lying areas; the second half increasingly mild with west to south-westerly flow but still predominantly dry. The last few days brought on outstanding spell of very mild and sunny weather. The highest maximum of 16.6 C was the highest in January since 1993. Parts of eastern Austria saw record temperatures near 20 C. In Munich, air frost was recorded each day up to the 19th, but the remainder of the month was entirely frost free! |
+0.3 |
19% |
154% |
| February |
Exceptionally mild - the warmest February since 1990 - and had a complete absence of cold spells, being dominated by often strong westerly flow. It was an unsettled month, wetter than normal throughout Germany, especially in the north. | +4.7 |
112% |
100% |
| March
|
A mild and largely dry month, with several very mild and sunny days during early to mid-month. The only substantial rainfall fell during a prolonged wet spell between 19th and 22nd, during which more than a normal month's rain total fell. No significant falls of snow were seen at all in Munich during January, February and March 2002 - a very rare occurrence. | +1.8 |
134% |
157% |
| April
|
A typical April with near normal temperatures - rather changeable, but without notable extremes and only light rainfall episodes. | +0.1 |
33% |
120% |
| May |
A rather warm and predominantly
dry month. Rainfall was above normal, however, due to some exceptionally
severe thundery downpours, especially during the Whit weekend -
on the evening of the 18th May more than 50mm fell in a 3-hour period
in parts of the city leading to flash flooding. |
+0.8 |
137% |
103% |
| June |
June 2002 will long be remembered for the exceptional prolonged heatwave around mid-month. The maximum temperature exceeded 30 C on 6 days, a new June record, while 32 C was exceeded on three consecutive days for the first time in any calendar month since the great heatwave of July 1983. Night minima were also exceptional at times: the temperature failed to drop below 20 C on four nights and a new June record minimum of 22.0 C was set up on the 19th. The rest of the month was largely settled, warm and sunny. Most rain fell in the form of thundery outbreaks and the very common "Sheep's Cold" period (Schafskälte) of early June was completely absent this year. As a result, it was the hottest June since at least 1950 (and probably longer) with a mean temperature of exactly 20.0 C (anomaly +3.9 C), more than 1 C warmer than June 2000 which had been the hottest June in recent decades before this one. All 6 months of 2002 so far have been warmer than normal. | +3.3 |
70% |
142% |
| July |
Warm spells early and late in the
month and a rather unsettled, cool spell mid-month characterised
July - a typical unexceptional summer month |
+0.1 |
109% |
97% |
| August |
The first half of August was very
unsettled with some prolonged rainfall and localised heavy thunderstorms.
However, Munich largely avoided the severe, record-breaking rainfall
events which affected regions further to the north and east at this
time. The second half of August was generally settled, dry and warm.
In Munich at least there were no extremes of temperature at all during
July or August, in strong contrast to the unusual June. The highest
maximum in August of only 28.0 C was the lowest such August monthly maximum
since 1984. |
+0.0 |
112% |
103% |
| September |
A rather cold and wet month, although
the first 3 weeks contained several fine late summer days. Nevertheless
the month will long be remembered for the exceptional cold spell
late in the month which brought the first September snowfall in Munich
for 71 years. A cyclonic north-easterly flow brought prolonged heavy
rainfall and steadily sinking temperatures on 24th. By the early evening
the rain had turned to wet snow, even in the city centre, and this lasted
long enough to stick to many surfaces. A light snow cover was still
visible on grass surfaces and roofs early the next morning. In Augsburg,
the snow cover accumulated to a couple of centimetres, while the Hohenpeissenberg
Observatory at over 900m altitude had 18cms of snow. The last few days
of the month brought clear weather with very cold nights, resulting in
air frosts in the countryside locally. |
-1.4 |
148% |
102% |
| October |
A very unsettled, wet and rather
cloudy month. A very strong Föhn storm on 27th-28th brought temperatures
of around 20 C with some wind damage |
-0.4 |
159% |
81% |
| November |
A very mild month dominated by a
persistent cyclonic south-westerly regime which brought frequent rainfall
and a complete absense of frost |
+2.9 |
194% |
62% |
| December |
In contrast to northern Germany,
where very cold weather persisted for much of the time, Munich
had a rather mild December, interupted by only a short easterly spell
with day frosts just before mid-month. The month was again quite unsettled
with frequent rainfall but no significant snowfall |
+0.7 |
160% |
59% |
| Month |
YEAR 2003 |
Temp |
Rain |
Sun |
| January |
After a very windy, mild and rainy start, the severe cold over northern Germany final arrived in the south from 5th January and a severe cold spell followed with maxima barely above -10 C on 9th in the greater Munich area. The second half of the month was rather unsettled and milder with some light precipitation |
-0.5 |
113% |
84% |
| February |
An
exceptional winter month! The first week was unsettled
following a short northerly outbreak with very heavy
snowfall in the Bavarian Alps. Prolonged snow fell around
the 8th February in Munich, ending up with a depth of about 25 cm
- the heaviest snowfall here since at least November 1999. The
remainder of the month was entirely anticyclonic, dry and mostly
clear and often sunny (with the occasional exception of some
local fog patches) and saw night after night of severe frost
(although the city heat island effect reduced its severity in
Munich city centre) with very slow sublimation of the snow
cover. February 2003 was the coldest since 1986 |
-4.1 |
65% |
133% |
| March |
The
very dry and sunny weather of February continued through
much of March, but days were often quite warm (the snow
cover had largely disappeared within the first few days of the
month). It was one of the finest Marches (for dryness and sun)
experienced during the last 25 years |
+1.7 |
37% |
153% |
| April |
Another
mild, very sunny and dry month. A short but exceptional
cold northerly spell occurred early in the month; the
minimum temperature of -4.6 C on 7th represents a new April
record for the Munich-Schwabing station while the maximum on this
day barely exceeded freezing point - the coldest April day since
1986. The second half of the month, however, was often very warm
and sunny, more than compensating for the severe spell. It was
the sunniest April for at least 20 years and the driest since at
least 1996. |
+0.8 |
31% |
141% |
| May |
The
outstanding long spell of largely sunny and warm weather
continued in May, although the middle part of the month
was more unsettled and cloudy than most of this Spring has
been. The month will especially be remembered for the exceptional
heatwave during the first week which gave the hottest May day on
record at this station, 31.1 C, as well as a new night minimum
record of 19.1 C. Rainfall was quite variable in Bavaria this
month, but Munich avoided the heaviest thunderstorms, giving the
driest May since 1997. |
+2.1 |
53% |
111% |
| June |
June
2003 was a record-breaking month of historical proportions, being both
exceptionally hot and sunny. The temperature anomaly of +5.7 C makes
it easily the hottest June for over 200 years (and it was the hottest
calendar month here since August 1992). Selected DWD figures for the
June 2003 anomalies across southern Germany show values of +5.6
(Munich-Dachauerstrasse), +6.1 (Munich-Airport), +6.6
(Hohenpeissenberg), +6.5 (Freiburg), +6.8 (Konstanz) and +7.1
(Feldberg / Schwarzwald). With widely over 300 hours of bright sunshine
in parts of upper Bavaria it was almost certainly the sunniest June
ever. Munich-Airport recorded 319 hours. A new June maximum record of
34.9 C was set, while the maximum temperature exceeded 25 C on 25 days
- the highest total in any calendar month at this station - even
beating the 24 days total recorded in the great hot July of 1983. 30 C
was exceeded 6 times and 33 C reached or exceeded on 3 days. Equally
amazing was the fact that no day failed to reach 23 C - an anomaly of
more than +10 C relative to the expected lowest maximum of June. It
was a very dry month generally, although heavy thunderstorms brought
locally higher totals in places, as is common in summer. Almost 40 mm
of rain fell at the Dachauerstrasse station in severe thunderstorms on
5th. |
+5.7 |
71% |
152% |
| July |
Apart
from a short cool spell during the first few days of the
month, July continued the very warm and largely dry and
sunny weather of June, although July was not as exceptional as
the former month. 30 C was exceeded on 5 days, while it was the
warmest July since 1995. The hottest day of the month, 33.7 C on
27th, ended with severe thunderstorms and exceptionally heavy
rainfall, leading to flash flooding, in the late afternoon. |
+1.7 |
86% |
122% |
| August |
The
first half of August 2003 will go into history books for
the unprecedented extreme heatwave which has affected much
of western and central Europe, with long-standing temperature
records being broken in many places. Munich had an outstanding
spell of 11 consecutive days with maxima above 30 C, while
night temperatures did not fall below 20 C throughout this
period. During this spell, the maximum exceeded 33 C on 6
occasions, while the heatwave reached a phenominal climax on 13th,
with a new station record of 37.3 C, even beating the legendary
extreme heat of late July 1983 (when "only" 36.4 C was recorded).
The following night, the minimum of 22.9 C was the highest since that
1983 event (23.0 C). The second half of the month continued very
warm, dry and sunny, albeit with no further extremes, while the last
3 days became much cooler with frequent heavy showers. It was the
hottest and probably sunniest August on record. 12 days had maxima
of 30 C or more, equalling the total set in 1992, while 27 days had
maxima of 25 C or more, a new record for any month, beating the total
of 25 days set just two months earlier in June. The Summer of 2003 was by far the hottest summer in recorded history in Munich and was also the sunniest ever recorded in the city, just beating the previous sunshine record holder, 1950. It was a very dry summer with only about 62% of the expected rainfall, although this did not break the all-time record set in 1911 (around 52%). Nevertheless, some other stations in Bavaria had less than 50% of normal rainfall in summer 2003 and broke all-time records. |
+4.7 |
38% |
143% |
| September |
September
2003 was yet another largely settled, dry and sunny month.
However, temperatures reverted to near normal levels. The first
half of the month was rather cool and there were several quite
cold nights during the month. Nevertheless, days were often
pleasantly warm and a very warm spell occurred at the end of the
third week, bringing the highest September temperatures since 1999. |
+0.7 |
35% |
125% |
| October |
In
strong contrast to recent months, October was an unusually
cold and unsettled month - the coldest October since 1974 (but
only since 1992 when based on mean maximum temperatures alone,
emphasizing the very cloudy weather of October 1992). The first week
was especially unsettled with some strong, north-westerlies and copious
rainfall, which also brought heavy sleet showers on the evening of
the 7th. As it quite common in October, the middle of the month saw
a sunny, dry spell, but this year, nights were especially cold, with
frequent ground frost. Even colder weather followed, with about 2-3
cms of snow lying on the morning of 24th. On this day, the
temperature barely rose above freezing (max +0.7), making it the
coldest October day in Munich since 1985, when a maximum of just +0.1
C occurred. Mild, föhn conditions on the last day of the month
heralded a change to much pleasanter weather during early November.
It was the wettest October for 5 years with nearly double the
expected total, although most of the rain fell during the first ten
days or so. Sunshine was slightly below normal. |
-3.2 |
196% |
91% |
| November |
November
2003 was a very settled, calm and largely dry and mild month,
with no extremes of weather or temperature. Fog developed in
the city outskirts and surroundings on several occasions. Very
mild Föhn conditions were frequent closer to the Alps, but the
Föhn effect often failed to penetrate the low level inversion
layer in the greater Munich area, or if so, then only weakly. About 2
cms of snow fell overnight on 28th/29th November, while the
following night saw the only city frost of the month. |
+1.4 |
52% |
112% |
| December |
December
was a mixed month with several short spells of contrasting
weather. The first half of the month was rather anticyclonic, as
November had been, while a windy outbreak of polar maritime air
brought some snow and hard frosts before Christmas. It was yet
another drier and sunnier than normal month. The Year 2003 was an outstanding year for good weather. It was by far the sunniest year on record in Munich, with a sunshine excess of more than 30%, and was also one of the driest, with only around two-thirds of normal rainfall. Indeed, 10 out of 12 months were both drier and sunnier than normal. Only 1911 appears to have been slightly drier in total. 2003 was another warm year, albeit not quite as warm as 1994, 2000 or 2002. |
-0.2 |
71% |
124% |
| Month |
YEAR 2004 |
Temp |
Rain |
Sun |
| January |
January 2004 a very unsettled,
often cyclonic month, with frequent snowfall. It was one of the
wettest Januaries in recorded history in Munich. During the
last 150 years, only January 1900 was wetter, while that of 1982 was
similarly wet. Several cms of snow accumulated during the first
week, which also saw three consecutive ice-days. The second week,
however, became mild and windy, with gale-force winds on 12th and
13th, accompanied by spells of driving rain. The remainder of the
month was cold. Very heavy snowfall on the night of 24th-25th gave a
snow cover of up to 20 cms, while the last few days of the month were
often windy with further light snowfall. Sunshine was somewhat below
normal. |
-0.4 |
231% |
72% |
| February |
After
an exceptionally warm, Föhn-dominanted first week in which the
mean temperature exceeded the normal by more than +8 degC, February
2004 became increasingly cold and unsettled. About 15 cms of snow fell
on 22nd February and the final week of the month, dominated by a
northerly regime, was persistently cold with temperatures mostly below
zero. The minimum temperature on 7th February of 10.5 C was the highest
in February for 15 years. It was a rather dry month, while sunshine was
near normal. |
+1.1 |
71% |
101% |
| March |
March 2004 was a rather cold
month, but with exceptional temperature contrasts. The first ten days
or so were very cold (nearly 5 degC below normal) with occasional
snowfall. However, mid-month brought a sudden onset of summer-like
conditions with maxima of nearly 22 C - the highest in March since
1990. Yet, a week later very cold northerlies brought snow and hard
frost again. Closer to the Alps there were near-record snowfalls for so
late in the winter. The last few days were fine and sunny and slowly
became warmer again. |
-1.0 |
69% |
125% |
