Overview
- At the Extremwetterkongress in Hamburg on September 23, the Deutscher Wetterdienst presented data showing summer 2026 set widespread records and signaled that such summers could become commonplace within about 30 years.
- The DWD reported an all-time high of 41.8°C in Möckern-Drewitz and said more than 95 percent of its stations logged new daily or monthly temperature records this summer.
- The Robert Koch-Institut estimates roughly 16,000 heat-related deaths in Germany during summer 2026, including about 9,600 during the intense late-June heat week.
- The new World Risk Report finds storms are the costliest weather hazard and says warming seas increase storm intensity and rainfall while sea-level rise raises the baseline for storm surges; tide gauges show Cuxhaven is already about 28 cm higher than 1900 and models project around 0.5 m or more by 2100 in many scenarios.
- Experts stressed that outcomes will hinge on social factors such as early warnings, building standards, evacuation plans and insurance, and they warned that uneven capacity worldwide—most severely in places like the Philippines—means adaptation and policy action must accelerate to prevent weather turning into disaster.