This year it was exactly 0.2 degrees colder – compared to the last 30 years. The last time it was cooler was in 2010. Clearly, that in spring – the war is called as cold as it has been for 25 years. “In between there can always be a year when it’s cooler, like this year – but that doesn’t break the trend for a long time. There will still be such individual cool years in ten, 20, 30 years from now. But on an ever higher level: What we perceive as cold today was still very warm in the 1960s, ”said meteorologist Alexander Ohms from the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG) in Salzburg.

Many colder summers for glaciers to grow again

The temperatures weren’t even a breathing space for the climate – this was also evident in the glaciers. A glacier is an inert mass that doesn’t react immediately, said the geographer Horst Ibetsberger. “There would have to be a lot of rainy, snowy, colder summers, then this melting curve would flatten out. And then in years we would only notice that it grows back a bit. “

Floods and heavy rain are clear signs

The heavy rain and floods in summer were the clearest signs of climate change. “There is much more water in the warm atmosphere and if this water comes down at the same time as it used to, then that is too much. The rivers, streams and canal systems cannot do that. This is how we have actually noticed climate change for many years, and more and more from year to year, ”says Ohms.

Christmas thaw for decades

It was less wet but extremely dry in spring and autumn – the fire brigades in Salzburg also warned of the danger of forest fires. The summer was not extremely hot – Golling had the highest temperature this year at 34 degrees, but due to the long, unchanged weather conditions – it rained little. Green Christmas, on the other hand, are not a sign of climate change, the Christmas thaw has been around for decades.