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Blooming crocuses against the backdrop of the old town in Dresden (on February 15th)

Photo: Sebastian Kahnert / dpa

How is it looking?

Yesterday it was 24 degrees in Trois-Villes (Iruri in Basque) in the French department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques. This is partly due to foehn effects from the Pyrenees, but this air mass, which is at the upper end of the temperature possibilities for mid-February, is being pushed from the south into Germany. That means maximum temperatures on Friday that will be at the upper end of what is possible in the middle decade of February, around 18 degrees - or in other words in areas that would otherwise belong to the end of April. These are the intended values, for details in countries and districts.

How can this be explained?

Nana Mouskouri rightly sang in 1962: “One day the south wind will blow again.” That is the case until Friday. Near the ground, hazel and alder pollen comes with the warmth, which means that the swearing nation no longer has to euphemistically talk about respiratory diseases when it was simply Corona. Also new is repetitive sneezing and uncontrollable runny nose due to pollen allergy - many people simply don't think about this possibility in mid-February. In addition, clouds of Saharan dust move across the sky at high altitudes. They are irrelevant for the air we breathe, but they limit solar radiation and also help produce thick veil clouds, which is why the maximum temperatures in the western half of Germany remain somewhat below their potential despite the warm air mass.

What's next?

From Friday to Saturday the cold front will move through and bring rain and air mass changes. This does not mean that winter will come, but by the end of the month the temperatures will drop to maximum temperatures that are not far from 10 degrees in the lowlands. This is still too warm for the time of year, but no longer extreme. It will be a close race in the final tally as to whether we are experiencing the warmest February since measurements began. Climate change does not sleep, even if there is currently less reporting about it.

What should I do?

If you're a German male, you probably need to wash your car immediately to keep your genes in the right order. Don't do it at the first possible slot on Friday after work. With the rain comes Saharan dust and pollen material. Otherwise, on Saturday morning you'll have to try to wash the streaks off your "car," as you call it, with your tears.

And what are you doing?

I wasn't introduced to the secondary virtue of car washing as a child because we didn't have a car. But back then I heard a lot of sad stories from kids my age who lived on the wrong side of the border and spent their Saturday afternoons doing drudgery for their obsessive boomer dad until the Bundesliga conference started. I'll just wait for the next rain.