3.4 degrees above average!

Warmest March ever in the Austrian lowlands

(Bild: APA/Barbara Gindl)

The warmest February in Austrian measuring history - krone.at reports - has now been followed, at least in the lowlands, by the warmest March to date - and the wettest for 15 years. In the Austrian mountains, it was the ninth warmest March since measurements began.

"After September and October 2023, two months in a row have now set new records," said climatologist Alexander Orlik from Geosphere Austria (formerly ZAMG). This is significant because there have never been two warmest months in a row since the series of measurements began in 1767, "now it has happened twice in a short space of time with September-October and February-March."

3.4 degrees Celsius above the long-term average
This year's March was 3.4 degrees above the average for the 1991 to 2020 climate period in Austria's lowlands and 2.4 degrees in the mountains. This puts Austria's lowlands in first place in the series of the warmest March months in the 258-year measurement history and the mountains in ninth place in the 174-year mountain measurement series.

Compared to the climate period 1961 to 1990, which was not yet as severely affected by global warming, March 2024 was 4.7 degrees above average in the lowlands and 3.7 degrees above average in the mountains, Geosphere Austria reported. It was unusually warm on a large number of days and the average daily temperatures were often between three and six degrees above the mean level.

Deviation of up to 4.9 degrees Celsius
The highest deviations from the climate average were observed from Flachgau, across Upper Austria and Lower Austria to northern Burgenland and in parts of the Tyrolean lowlands, where the deviation was between 3.5 and 4.9 degrees.

At the end of the month, the 25 degree mark was reached (in Oberndorf an der Melk in Lower Austria and in Schärding in Upper Austria). Such summer days (at least 25 degrees) occur statistically about every five years in Austria in March. In the climatological average, the first summer day in Austria does not occur until April 18.

March record for the mildest night
On March 30, a daily minimum of plus 16.5 degrees was also reached in Wiener Neustadt, reported the severe weather center via X (formerly Twitter) - this is a new Austria-wide March record for the mildest night.

Rainiest March since 2009
On the other hand, there was 14 percent less sunshine than the long-term average, while the amount of precipitation was one percent above average and therefore almost exactly in line with the long-term average. However, as the March months of the past few years were all too dry, it was enough to make it the wettest month since 2009 (74 percent above average at the time).

Above 1500 meters above sea level, snow depths were normal to above average. In Vorarlberg and Tyrol, the maximum snow depths were ten to 20 percent above the climate average. In Salzburg, Carinthia, Upper Austria and Styria, the snow depths corresponded to an average March. As in previous years, however, there was little to no snow this year at low altitudes, below 1000 meters above sea level.

Earliest apricot blossom since 1946
Nature developed very quickly in the warm weather of the past few weeks: the apricot blossom was three weeks earlier than the average for the 1991 to 2020 climate period and four weeks earlier than in the 1961 to 1990 climate period. It was the earliest date for the apricot blossom in the series of observations dating back to 1946.

However, the early development of the plants makes them more sensitive to cold spells with frost, which can still occur every few years until around the beginning of May.