DW/ Edited by Stefanos Georgakopoulos

Extreme weather events with heatwaves, downpours and stormy winds characterized 2023.

The climate crisis was felt globally. Extreme weather changes affected millions of people both in central Europe and in the Mediterranean basin.

In July almost 50 degrees were recorded in Sardinia and in August forest fires burned many areas in Greece. In September, heavy rains and unprecedented flooding caused thousands of deaths in Libya.

Unfortunately, such extreme events are the new normal, the Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Peteri Talas assessed already this summer, calling for drastic measures to protect the climate.

2023 is the warmest year since the beginning of industrialization, the EU climate change agency Copernicus said in early December.

In the year ending in a few days, the global average temperature was 1.46 degrees above the 1850-1900 average. Based on the data so far, 2016 was the warmest year worldwide at plus 1.3 degrees. However, it is possible that 2023 will be the hottest year for tens of thousands of years.

Of course, there were no records then, but scientists are able to analyze ancient air bubbles deep in the ice to draw conclusions about the climate thousands of years ago.

Extreme weather events have always existed, but scientists have proven that they are becoming more frequent and stronger due to climate change. With prolonged droughts as well as periods of heavy rainfall, as is the case in Germany today.

“Since the hot summer of 2018 at the latest, we are in Europe permanently in a state of emergency,” says Helge Gessling, a climate physicist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in the city of Bremerhaven. The German scientist is convinced that climate change is now a serious threat to humanity and refers, among other things, to the heavy downpours that caused floods and left behind dozens of victims in July 2021 in the Aar Valley in central-western Germany.

According to data from the German Meteorological Service in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022 the measured temperature in Germany exceeded 2.5 degrees above the level of 1881, when systematic meteorological records began. Temperatures in Germany are higher than the global average because global figures also take into account ocean surface temperatures, which have risen less than over land.

The end of fossil fuels?

Extreme weather events were not observed in 2023 only in Europe and the Mediterranean region.

Devastating rains caused unprecedented flooding in Brazil in February.

In February and March, Cyclone Freddie raged in the Indian Ocean for 37 days, significantly longer than average, causing severe material damage in Madagascar and Mozambique.

From April onwards there was a heat wave from India to China, in June and July Pakistan was hit by unprecedented floods and in October the famous Mexican holiday resort of Acapulco was devastated by a typhoon, said to have appeared out of nowhere.

After decades of public debate, the global community agreed at the UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai (COP28) to end the use of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. “This climate conference seals the end of fossil fuels,” said German Foreign Minister Analena Burbock. Dubai also agreed to triple the use of renewable energy sources by 2030 and double the energy efficiency of alternative energy sources within the next seven years.

No one can predict whether next summer in Germany will be hot or dry. On a global level, however, it is possible that it will be even warmer than this year. “The chances are 50:50,” says German physicist Helge Gessling.