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Sunshine in North Rhine-Westphalia
Photo: Thomas Banneyer / dpa
How is it looking?
On Saturday we will get an extremely warm air mass, which will be the warmest in many parts of Germany since measurements began in the first decade of April. All-time records will fall, even 30 degrees is not out of the question from the Upper Rhine to Lower Franconia, the zero degree limit will rise to 4000 meters.
The previous records: Hamburg 24.6 degrees, Potsdam 26.4, Cologne 25.8, Dresden 26.1, Trier 25.2, Frankfurt/Main 26.1, Nuremberg and Munich 25.2 and Rheinfelden 27.7 degrees. The Bavarian highs will almost certainly be exceeded. Further west, it depends on how much Saharan dust could make the sun and sky cloudier again. The development is predicted here.
How can this be explained?
Warm air flows to us from North Africa. Due to climate change, the air masses themselves and the Mediterranean are warmer than before and, as a result, everything is coming together in a way that has not been the case in the past 150 years. The fact that dust is blown up over North Africa and makes it to us is nothing unusual and has happened quite often in the past. The reason why people think this is something new has to do with the fact that no one used to say why the sky isn't so blue now.
What's next?
After the presumed record Saturday, the warmth will still be there on Sunday and Monday, albeit with clouds and more Saharan dust, so no further temperature records are expected for the first decade of April. On Tuesday the warm air will be cleared from west to east and Germany will be dusted off. When it showers, you will see Sahara dust on cars from Sunday. German men therefore have license to break down crying in the face of it and to force their children to wash their cars on a Saturday outside of the normal procedure.
What should I do?
You should not jog or otherwise exert yourself outside if the air is polluted. If the air quality in this overview is no longer in the green range, lying around and reading the new SPIEGEL is better for your health. Yes, you won't be able to show training pictures on your app, but that wasn't what popular sports used to be about.
And what are you doing?
I'm excited to see how high it goes in the end, how many records fall. And I think about the fact that such “perfect” days as we are now experiencing at the beginning of April also mean that 45 degrees are conceivable here in midsummer if everything fits together.