Annual Weather Report Taunusstein

Weather report of Taunusstein, Germany for 2003

2003 – another year of records in the Taunus mountains!

Last year’s weather created a lot of surprises and records in Europe. After a very hot summer it was already obvious to become a year of extremes. The whole degree of irregularity of the weather became evident, however, only after the yearly assessment right now. It shows that in the Taunus mountains north of the city of Wiesbaden the year 2003 was the hottest and richest in sunshine since the beginning of the meteorological reports in the 19^th century in Wiesbaden, and the 3^rd dryest year since 1951!

But first to the temperatures in detail: The annual mean in Taunusstein was measured with 10.2 degrees centigrade. This is nearly 2 centigrades more than the long-term mean of the basic climate period 1961-1990. Thus it turned out to be warmer in Taunusstein at an altitude of 380 m above sea level than in Wiesbaden with a lowland climate with an average of 9.8° !

Also in Wiesbaden the actual mean was very high with 11.3°, but there happened to be a year (2000) that was even warmer with 11.4° centigrade. (For more details see the files and graphics of Wiesbaden in this website).

As is shown by the monthly means (see graphics of Taunusstein) there were only three months with too low temperatures (January, February, and October). The rest of the months, especially in summer, showed partly outstanding excesses in temperature leaded by August with a mean value of 22.2°! This was the highest monthly value at this station so far. Minimum occurred in February with – 0.5°.

While watching the values of the whole region you can find different proportions, but the tendency to unique temperatures can be seen anywhere. I already mentioned the example of Wiesbaden. Another typical station is Geisenheim-on-Rhine in the adjacent landscape of the Rheingau. It also enjoyed a surplus of sunshine and warmth. But like in Wiesbaden 2003 there turned out to be only the second warmest year with 11.4° (1994 with 11.5°) and “only” 1.8 centigrades warmer than the long-term annual mean of 9.6°.

Let us now have a look at the next graphics with the daily means in Taunusstein. We can see long periods with high temperatures above the long-term means but only few periods with decreasing means, especially in the cold months. Extremely high values were measured mostly in June and August. At that time Germany turned out to be hotter than Morocco or Greece!

The long periods with fair weather brought us a lot of sunshine as well. Sunshine is not measured in Taunusstein but the cloudiness and the number of fair and gloomy days. Who will be surprised by more records with these variables? In 2003 we achieved the lowest degree of cloudiness ever measured in Taunusstein (4.3 Eights of the sky covered as annual mean; normal value: 5.1 Eights). Fewest clouds were observed in August (2.8 Eights only). At the same time the highest number of fair days (13) since starting the weather reporting was noticed. The low degree of cloudiness and precipitation activity was causing a diminished relative air humidity. It resulted in an annual mean of 71 % which are 6 % less than the long-term value – also a new record!

Last discipline of records now are the precipitations. They amounted to a yearly sum of 518 mm (long-term average: 742 mm). This is the lowest sum since the beginning of weather reporting in 1987. In spite of that we still notice an increasing tendency of the annual sums of rainfall though this increase is not as clear as the climbing of the temperatures. The monthly graphics show only two months with exceeding precipitations (January and May) whereas all other months became too dry, especially February and April. Due to the little rain fall the water levels in German rivers became extremely low so that the ships on the Rhine could sail only with minimum cargo. The highest daily sum (nearly 30 mm) was measured on January 2.

Finally we have a look at the phenological dates that show the reaction of plant life and vegetation appearance on the weather conditions. Due to the low temperatures at the beginning of the year the blossom of the snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) was delayed by eight days (beginning of early spring); it occurred only on March 5. Then the warmer months followed so that all phenological dates until October became too soon. This could be seen most clearly with the full summer (beginning of the lime-tree blossom; Tilia cordata) which started on June 14 already (i.e. 16 days too soon). Early winter is shown by the fall of the last leaves – in this case the larch-tree (Larix europaea). Its date was November 22 – the same date as on the long run.

Resuming all these facts the year 2003 was a year full of events with many new records. As a significant observation we have to realise that since sixteen years we notice increasing annual means of temperatures in Middle Europe (with one exception only – 1996)! Such a series of warm years never was observed since the beginning of scientific meteorological measurements in the 18^th century! This outstanding evidence for a climate change should be a commitment to every man or woman that is capable to make decisions for our future! We have to take any step possible to diminish the carbon dioxide emissions that are mostly responsible for the rising temperatures. Nevertheless you can’t be sure this will go on like this. One can’t exclude chilly years to come. Weather is not predictable. Best example are some old rural weather sayings that falsely predicted a very cold winter in Europe. One of them says, “August very hot, winter very white”. We had the hottest August ever since, but nowhere you can discover a white or cold winter in our mountains.