Summer 2023 – it feels a bit like before. Before climate change was a big problem for us. In memory it looks something like this: There was summer, sun, sunshine in NRW in June, July and August. times it was hot. Then for a few days everyone crowded the outdoor pool or the bathing lake. And soon it got colder again. sweater weather. And at night – it wasn’t too hot to sleep, at least not most of the time.
Climate change: extreme summers
Then it got extreme – especially in the last few years. heat records. Sweating for weeks. Dryness. Drought. Forest fires. Summer got ugly.
In October 2022, people were still sitting outside late in the evening – in the garden, on the balcony, in the city garden. The year was the second warmest in Europe since weather records began, and the summer was the warmest ever documented in Europe.