What happened to spring? The weather in Germany seems to have skipped straight from winter to summer. Things are hotting up rapidly this week as we head into the first heatwave of the year - in some parts of the country, the thermometer could go as high as 37 degrees! 

Germany readies itself for first heatwave of the year

Some weather records could be broken this week, as Germany braces itself for the first heatwave of the year. The temperature will steadily rise over the course of the week, before reaching a high point on Friday, when the 37-degree mark could be cracked. 

“The first heatwave of the year is upon us,” the German Weather Service (DWD) wrote in their daily report on Monday, signalling that two strong weather fronts (“Yona” and “Zoe”), will be bringing a whole load of hot air to Germany over the coming week. 

Things will start slowly, with Tuesday set to be a cloudy day by all accounts, as the tail end of a cold front nicknamed “Robert” prevents the temperature from climbing too dramatically. Only in the south of the country is the sunshine likely to break through the clouds, but the high will still be a respectable 25 to 30 degrees in central and southern Germany, and up to 32 degrees in the southwest. As always, the northern part of the country will experience cooler temperatures between 20 and 24 degrees. 

Friday will be the hottest day this week

On Wednesday we can say goodbye to the clouds, as the sun finally breaks through and warms the whole country up to between 26 and 32 degrees, or a little less at the coast. It will be even hotter in the western regions of Bergstraße, the Moselle and the Upper Rhine, where temperatures of up to 34 degrees are expected. 

Wednesday night is likely to be the first of a handful of tropical nights (when the temperature doesn’t dip below 20 degrees at night), so this is a good time to read up on our tips for sleeping during a heatwave. Thursday will also be sunny and dry - although there is some risk of thunderstorms heading into the evening - with highs between 30 and 36 degrees. 

Rounding out this balmy week, Friday will be proof that hot, dry weather can never be sustained in Germany, as showers and thunderstorms roll across the western half of the country. Elsewhere, it will be sunny and dry, and the temperature will not ease up: in the west, you can look forward to a very humid day between 26 and 32 degrees; elsewhere a whopping 31 to 37 degrees is predicted, with the highest values in the region of Lusatia. 

Hot weather here to stay?

Looking further ahead, the DWD is expecting these high temperatures to continue, with highs of up to 35 degrees in eastern Germany and 31 degrees in the west predicted on Saturday and Sunday. Heading into next week, things start looking more unsettled and the potential for thunderstorms and extreme weather increases. Let’s just say: it’s going to be hot and humid! 

It might seem extremely hot, but temperatures exceeding 35 degrees in June are not totally out of the ordinary for Germany. The highest-ever June temperature was recorded on June 18, 2002, when a thermometer at the DWD measuring station in Herten registered a whopping 38,3 degrees. Similar record-breaking temperatures were also recorded on that day in Frankfurt and Cologne. The DWD therefore thinks it’s unlikely that new records will be set this week - but only time will tell.