The beginning of September is unusually warm not only in Poland. As tvnmeteo.pl presenter Tomasz Wasilewski explained on TVN24, the temperature over a large part of Europe is much higher than usual – monthly records were broken in Norway and Sweden. However, high values go hand in hand with little precipitation.
This year's September began with a strong heatwave. The high-pressure system over Russia brought dry, scorching weather to our part of the continent, reminiscent of August in southern Europe rather than September in central regions. As tvnmeteo.pl presenter Tomasz Wasilewski explained in the program “Wstajesz i weekend”, the heat is tormenting not only us.
Unsettled weather
– The weather in Europe is unstable – he said. – In southwestern Norway, in the Rogaland region, a record from 127 years ago, from 1897, was broken (…) there has never been more than 23 degrees in September, and this time it was 25.1 degrees, so the temperature is completely unusual.
As the presenter added, this is not the only place in the north of the continent where unusually high thermometer values were recorded. For the first time in the history of measurements in Norway and Sweden values above 30 degrees Celsius were recorded in September.
In central Europe, Saturday will bring a significant deviation from the norm. The average temperature is to be 12-13 degrees higher than the multi-year average. This anomaly will also cover eastern Germany and parts of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
– This is an absolutely unbelievable and bizarre deviation – Wasilewski said.
Semi-arid conditions
Not all corners of Europe are facing positive anomalies, however. Parts of France and the Iberian Peninsula have found themselves outside the area of influence of the Russian high, and on Saturday it will be a few degrees colder there than usual – currently in France the thermometers show 16 degrees Celsius, much lower than usual for this time of year.
The atmospheric front running over the Benelux countries, western Germany and France is responsible for this. It separates two completely different air masses, bringing with it heavy rain. As the presenter explained, the front will move eastwards, while losing strength. Currently, there are virtually no clouds over central Europe.
– You could drive a few thousand kilometers and not encounter a single cloud – he said. – This is dry, continental air from the east, in which humidity sometimes drops to a dozen or so percent. (…) This is exactly such a desert, semi-desert climate and we currently have it in Poland – he added.
A record also in Poland
IMWM-PIB climatologist Dr. Dawid Biernacik predicts that this year's September may be one of the warmest since 1951. According to IMWM-PIB data, the temperature until September 5 was about 5.7 degrees Celsius higher than the average for the multi-year period 1991-2020. The expert noted that September 2023 was the warmest in Poland so far. “However, there is a chance that this year will be warmer,” he said.
He also emphasized that the meteorological summer season (June, July, August) in 2024 was very warm. According to preliminary measurements, this season was the second warmest since 1951. The average air temperature in these months was 19.7 degrees Celsius. Until the 1970s, it was estimated that the average summer temperature in Poland was below 17 degrees Celsius.
Main image source: PAP/EPA/MARTIN DIVISEK