Summer might currently feel like it’s on an unscheduled break, but before you start complaining about the grey and the drizzle, know that there’s a lot of hot and dry weather heading for Germany. Long-term forecasts are coming in, and it looks like this summer in Germany is going to be long, dry and hot, hot, hot! 

Heatwave upon heatwave forecast for summer 2022 in Germany

New weather models from the USA and Europe are forecasting that Germany will experience a whole lot of hot weather from mid-July onwards. This is thanks to a particularly active bank of high pressure known as the Azores High, which is moving in such a way as to prevent cooling westerly weather from pouring over Europe, just as a heat bubble travels north from the Sahara.

According to meteorologist Dominik Jung of wetter.net, the thermometer could regularly hit temperatures of up to 42 degrees this summer - making for a heatwave that could surpass the records set during the sizzling summer of 2019. “As a meteorologist, I have rarely seen such forecasts,” he said. “At least not for [Germany].”

The German Weather Service (DWD) is making similar predictions, forecasting temperature highs of up to 39 degrees in the coming weeks and months. Throughout the second half of July, meteorologists are saying that Munich will likely experience “an almost continuous heat wave with temperatures between 30 and 35 degrees.”

Too little rain a worry across the whole of Europe

The promise of warm weather might seem good for summer, but both experts are warning that the lack of rain is concerning. “When the calculations were made at the beginning of June, everything was much more relaxed,” said Jung. “But now July and August are forecast to be significantly too dry, July even extremely dry, and nationwide both months are expected to be significantly too warm.” 

The DWD is predicting that the western parts of the country will see little precipitation, with only around five rainy days predicted for Cologne over the next five weeks. Things look a little wetter in Berlin and Munich, but still too dry overall.

Since spring, the DWD has been observing an extensive drought across Europe, which in some cases has had a significant impact on water supply and agriculture. Some parts were even too dry over the winter season. Across central Europe, precipitation has been below average every month since September 2021, with the exception of February 2022.