Sunny and Dry in 2022 – Another Warmest Year on Record
The Climate Monitoring Station Aachen-Hörn of the RWTH Department of Geography has reported the following annual values for 2022.
With an annual average temperature of 12.4C (54.3F), 2022 was the warmest year to date and also considerably warmer than normal when measured against the climate period of 1991 to 2020, which has only been in effect since 2021. Overall, 2022 was also a very sunny year – counting 1,417 hours of sunshine in the period from May to October alone, representing almost 90 percent of the normal sunshine hours for the whole year (1,583 hours). With a total of 619 millimeters of rainfall, the annual amount was 232 millimeters below the normal amount recorded from 1991 to 2020.
The mean annual air temperature was 12.4C (54.3F), 0.2 Kelvin higher than the previous record year of 2020 and 1.5 Kelvin above the new climate period 1991 to 2020 (10.9C or 51.6F), as well as 2.7 Kelvin above the mean from 1901 to 2000 for the former Aachen Weather Station of the German Weather Service DWD at Wingertsberg.
In addition, the highest temperature in 2022 was 39.5C (103.1F), which was recorded on July 19. This temperature had only been exceeded once – when 40.0C (104F) was recorded in 2019. The lowest temperature in 2022 was recorded on December 18, when the mercury level sunk to -8.2C (17.2F). This low was undershot on average in 17 of the 30 years of the last period, most recently in 2021. In line with the high annual mean temperature, 2022 saw a significant number of hot days, with 22 in total. “Hot days” are any days where a maximum temperature greater than or equal to 30C (86F) is recorded. In comparison: the period from 1991 to 2020 saw only 16 hot days, and the 2022 total was six times the average of the 1961 to 1990 period (3.5 days greater than or equal to 30C). In contrast, there were only four ice days in 2022: this means the temperature did not rise above 0C (32F) on these days. This is eight less than the average for the period from 1961 to 1990, but two more than the average for 1991 to 2020.
No month in 2022 was colder than the temperatures recorded for the months in the 1961 to 1990 period. Despite the bitterly cold start to the month, even December recorded 0.5 Kelvin warmer on average. In total, only three months were colder than the respective average of the period from 1991 to 2020. The average temperature in August was 22C (71.6F), 3.3 Kelvin above that of the 1991 to 2020 period, and 4.9 Kelvin above that of the 1961 to 1990 period.
When it comes to rainfall, eight months were considered significantly drier than normal and two were wetter – February and September, each month recording over 27 millimeters. July and August together saw only 41 millimeters of rainfall, which is 118 millimeters less than the normal average. There was no risk of heavy rain in Aachen in 2022 – the greatest daily rainfall recorded was lower than normal every single month.