Marc Olefs, head of the climate research department at the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG), speaks of the “fingerprint of global warming”. Not much was missing, then 2022 in Austria, as in some neighboring countries, would even have been the warmest year since measurements began. However, the cold wave in mid-December pushed the average temperature down a bit.
It was 2.3 degrees warmer this year than the average for the years 1961 to 1990, compared to the average for 1991 to 2020 the deviation is 1.1 degrees. This puts third place in the lowlands in 2022 in Austria’s 256-year series of measurements, according to the ZAMG. The year 2018 is still at the top ahead of 2014.
New record on the mountains
On the mountains, however, 2022 was the warmest year on record. “Fix is a new record for the Patscherkofel and Obergurgl (both Tyrol) and the Villacher Alpe (Carinthia)”, says the climate researcher Olefs. But 2022 also breaks the previous record at individual stations at low altitudes, for example in Klagenfurt, Kufstein and Lienz. The trend towards an ever warmer climate is unbroken. The six warmest years in Austria’s history were all in the past ten years.
Between minus 24.9 degrees and 38.7 degrees
The highest temperature was recorded on August 5th in Seibersdorf (Lower Austria): 38.7 degrees. On 41 days it was over 30 degrees hot here, on average over the last 30 years there have been 25 hot days in Seibersdorf. One station had even more hot days this year, Bad Deutsch-Altenburg (Lower Austria) had 45 days over 30 degrees. The significant increase in hot days is a feature of the climate crisis.
The cold spell in mid-December saw the lowest temperatures of the year: On the 18th, minus 24.0 degrees were measured at the newly built Schwarzau station in Freiwald (Lower Austria). On the 12th of the month it was a bit icier on the mountains with minus 24.9 degrees on the Brunnenkogel (Tyrol, 3,437 meters).
Almost every month of the year was significantly too warm, with June and October being particularly extreme. Only September was cooler than in the climatic period 1961 to 1990, which was not so badly affected by global warming. Nevertheless, autumn was one of the five warmest since measurements began. This was also due to mild nights. The first frost in Innsbruck University and Salzburg Freisaal came on November 27, a month later than the long-term average.
drought as a problem
In addition to the almost constant heat, it was too dry, the precipitation deficit for the year is around 15 percent. The drought posed challenges for agriculture. In spring, the drought even reached historic proportions in some places. In Graz there was no rain for 42 days in a row in February and March. Drought in spring has been observed more and more frequently in recent years, according to ZAMG.
In summer, due to heat stress and a lack of rain in Lower Austria and Vienna, the leaves of some trees discolored as in autumn, meadows were brown as usual on the Mediterranean. In Eisenstadt, 2022 was the driest year in the history of measurements, only 424 liters per square meter fell and thus a good 250 liters less than normal.
Podersdorf had even less precipitation with only 370 liters per square meter. This had a dramatic effect on Lake Neusiedl, which fell this year to its lowest level since measurements began in 1965. The Zicksee dried up altogether in the summer, and masses of fish died.
Little water, little electricity
In summer, the levels of other lakes were unusually low, such as Lake Constance and Lake Wolfgang. In addition to the lack of rain and the large amount of evaporation due to the heat and sun, the low level of snowmelt from the mountains was also a reason.
The rivers also carried less water than usual this year, and electricity production from hydropower suffered. Since wind and photovoltaics are not yet sufficiently developed, Austria was dependent on electricity imports even in summer. Austria usually generates surpluses in the summer months and is an export country, according to the electricity network operator Austrian Grid Power.
Not every year in the future will be as dry and hot as this year, man-made global warming is overlaid by natural fluctuations. Nevertheless, the extremes will occur more frequently in the future and the problems will increase in the long term, according to climate researcher Olefs.
Horror year for the glaciers
Excessive amounts of water poured out from the local glaciers in summer. The Hintereisferner in Tyrol, one of the best-studied glaciers in the world, lost five percent of its mass, more than ever before. On the 3,109 meter high Sonnblick, it snowed almost eight meters less than usual this year, a negative record. The Sonnblick was already snow-free at the beginning of July, the Zugspitze already in June, both earlier than ever.
Saharan dust played a crucial role in the early melting, amplifying melting as temperatures increased from May onwards. The Sahara dust had reached Austria in huge quantities in mid-March and had turned the sky spectacularly yellow-reddish.
The fine sand settled on the snow and made it dark. Sand skiing took on a new meaning, for example in the Arlberg ski areas. For the mountains, March was the sunniest since records began.
Non-stop temperature records
Heat records fell non-stop in 2022. In Vorarlberg, there were new state records in May with 33.4 degrees in Bludenz and in June with 36.5 degrees in Feldkirch. In Graz, the two warmest nights in the more than 100-year history of measurements robbed many of their sleep. In June it only cooled down to 22.5 degrees at the university in one night, in July the record was surpassed again with 23.3 degrees.
A particularly large number of records were set in October. For the first time in the history of Austria, there was a summer day (over 25 degrees) at an altitude of over 1,000 meters this month. The tropical night on the 1,113 meter high Kolomansberg, where it did not cool below 20.4 degrees on October 30th, can be classified as even more extreme.
The record series began in 2022 at the turn of the year. At the springtime of 16.3 degrees in Pottschach/Ternitz (Lower Austria), the corks popped at the turn of the year. During the day on New Year’s Day there were up to 18.8 degrees in Köflach (Styria).
stormy times
The warmth at the beginning of the year was no coincidence, it was due to a never-ending westerly weather situation. Numerous storm lows swept across Austria in January and February. In January and February, Vienna experienced twelve days with wind speeds of over 80 km/h on the Hohe Warte, three times as many as normal.
With 115.2 km/h, the Innsbruck University station set a new wind record on February 7th, and that in the middle of the night with a north föhn wind. The storm “Ylenia” on February 17 was one of the strongest in recent years and called for hundreds of firefighters. 146 km/h were measured on the Buchbergwarte (460 meters altitude, Lower Austria), and even 160 km/h on the Hohe Veitsch (1,973 meters altitude, Styria). Climate models show that winter storm lows could become more intense in the future.
Storm with record rain
Extreme wind speeds also occurred in summer, and in some places it rained more than ever before. In the night from June 28th to 29th, a storm rolled over the Gelände valley (Carinthia), within a few hours 135 liters of rain per square meter fell in Arriach, as much as usual in a whole month. The consequences: Entire regions were devastated by mudslides and floods, the consequences are still visible today.
The storm with the most serious consequences of the summer struck on August 18, and an exceptionally violent storm front rolled over large parts of Austria. Five people died from falling trees, including two children in St. Andrä in the Lavanttal (Carinthia). In Upper Styria, power poles snapped like matchsticks, and 139 km/h were measured in Neumarkt, a new record.
The next day it was called land in the Rhine Valley (Vorarlberg). 212 liters of rain per square meter fell in Bregenz. All imaginable rain records were pulverized. In a few hours it rained more than in the previous two months. The result was 1,500 firefighting operations. In a warmer world, it inevitably rains more, so the rain records fit the scenario of the climate researchers.
There is a need to catch up on climate protection
In the course of the climate crisis, storms like this year will become more frequent in the future and also increase in intensity, says Olefs. At the same time, the periods of drought are also getting longer. The many temperature records this year are also footprints and warning signals of climate change. “Everything we’ve seen this year fits what one would expect from physics to be the effects of a warmer atmosphere,” Olefs said. The upheavals in the fragile climate system have only just begun.
Nevertheless, Austria is not a model student when it comes to climate protection. Around 77 million tons of climate-damaging greenhouse gases are emitted every year. This high level has hardly changed for around 30 years, and this year emissions will only fall by three percent, according to the Austrian Institute for Economic Research (WIFO). Not enough to achieve the ambitious goal of halving emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2040. Germany, for example, shows that there is another way, where greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by almost 40 percent since 1990.
