A Mild Winter in Europe

As the meteorological winter came to an end this month we want to take the opportunity to have a look on the statistics. If you are based in Central Europe it probably does not come to your surprise that this winter was one of the warmest on record in Europe.

Temperature anomaly across Europe for winter 2019/2020. Source: Deutscher Wetterdienst.

In terms of precipitation Europe was mostly divided in half. While Italy and Spain experienced a dry season with little rain, we saw northern Europe reporting precipitation records well above average.

Precipitation anomaly across Europe for winter 2019/2020. Source: Deutscher Wetterdienst.

At my doorstep in Mannheim, Germany I did rarely see any snowfall with no snow cover at all. We had 27 days with minimum temperatures below freezing point but saw only one day undercutting the -5 °C mark. Altogether, the period from December 2019 to February 2020 was 4.3 °C above average in Mannheim with a slight surplus of precipitation.

Daily temperature data for Mannheim, Germany during winter 2019/2020. Source: meteostat.net; Raw Data: Deutscher Wetterdienst.

Up north the situation was even more significant with Helsinki, Finland exceeding the 1961–1990 temperature normals by more than 7 °C and almost twice the usual precipitation total.

The trend of increasing temperatures in Europe and the world continues. Learn more about the Earth’s climate at meteostat.