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Germany Faces Heat Warnings Before Weekend Storms

A west-to-east cold front will bring scattered showers, thunderstorms and a sharp short-lived cooling that is unlikely to end the country’s broad drought.

Overview

  • The Deutscher Wetterdienst issued heat warnings for many areas, notably multiple Bavarian cities and districts, as Saturday will bring highs of about 30–38°C with local peaks near 39°C.
  • A frontal passage overnight into Sunday is forecast to produce scattered to locally strong showers and thunderstorms with gusts up to roughly 90 km/h, hail and heavy downpours.
  • Forecasters say rainfall will be highly uneven and short-lived, so low river and groundwater levels will not be substantially relieved and baked soils will cause much of the rain to run off.
  • Waldbrandgefahr (forest-fire danger) remains high to very high across large parts of the country and active fires, including one in the Eifel/Kreis Düren region, have already forced evacuations.
  • The Robert Koch-Institut estimates about 12,500 heat-related deaths from April 6 to August 2, a figure intensive-care doctors such as DIVI’s Uwe Janssens publicly contend underestimates the true toll.