Weather gods have been very kind to Europe so far this winter. Instead of normally very cold December and January, the weather turned to be unusually warm, breaking thousands of temperature records across much of the continent.
From Span and France to western Russia, temperatures across much of Europe are 10 to 20 °C (18 to 36 °F) above normal at the start of 2023, with thousands of temperature records broken from December 31 to January 2, 2023.
“We just observed the warmest January day on record for many countries in Europe,” Scottish meteorologist Scott Duncan said. “Truly unprecedented in modern records.”
“[There are] far too many individual station records to even count,” Duncan said. “Thousands.”
On January 1, at least seven countries saw their warmest January weather on record, climatologist Maximiliano Herrera reports.
Latvia registered 11.1 °C (52 °F), Denmark 12.6 °C (54.7 °F), Lithuania 14.6 °C (58.3 °F), Belarus 16.4 °C (61.5 °F), the Netherlands 16.9 °C (62.4 °F), Poland 19 °C (66.2 °F), and the Czech Republic 19.6 °C (67.3 °F).
Poland lived through a historic 19 °C (66.2 °F) in the middle of the night on January 1 — a temperature uncommon even during summertime.
Hundreds of records were broken in Germany on the same day, with temperatures rising as high as 19.4 °C (66.9 °F).
Abnormal warmth also gripped Austria, with 19.7 °C (67.5 °F) at Puchberg. Temperatures up to 18.9 °C (66 °F) were registered in Hungary, 19 °C (66.2 °F) in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia while Romania registered temperatures above 20 °C (68 °F).
On January 2, an astonishing 19.2 °C (66.6 °F) was registered at Baden-Geroldsau in Germany and an incredible 18.2 °C (64.8 °F) at Hohenpeißenberg at 977 m (3 205 feet) above sea level.
In just 3 days, 982 monthly records were broken in Germany.
These are also the warmest January days since record-keeping began in Ukraine, where most stations broke their records.
Lviv registered 14.9 °C (58.8 °F) on January 2, Rivne and Kyiv 13.2 °C (55.8 °F), Vinnytsa 13.1 °C (55.6 °F), Konotop 8.6 °C (47.5 °F), and Chernihiv 10.3 °C (50.5 °F).
Record warmth is also gripping Russia, with Makhachkala registering 19.2 °C (66.6 °F) today and Derbent 18.6 °C (65.5 °F), among others.
Cyprus was among the hottest countries in Europe today, with a whopping 24.5 °C (76.1 °F) — near the national record.
This unusual and historic warm spell is just what’s needed for a continent suffering from a severe energy crisis, and, with just a break or two, much of Europe will continue experiencing above-normal temperatures over the next 2 weeks.
Forecast models call for a notable change in temperatures starting on January 17.
