Austria reports warmest October day since records began

By Timo Kirez

GENEVA (AA) - Tuesday hit 30.3C (86.54F) in Langenlebarn, Lower Austria, the warmest October day in Austria in 257 years of record keeping.

As the Federal Institute for Geology, Geophysics, Climatology and Meteorology said on its website, new October highs were reached Monday and Tuesday at 87 measuring stations across the country.

According to GeoSphere Austria, the previous provincial records were also set in Upper Austria and Salzburg, with 28.6C (83.48F) in Weyer and 28.3C (82.94F) in Salzburg-Freisaal.

In all state capitals, it was a summer day by climatological definition, with temperatures above 25C (77F). According to Geosphere, October thus continued seamlessly from the previous weeks.

Already in September, the authority found it was the warmest September in the history of records. According to the data, the monthly average in the lowlands was 3.2C warmer than the average from 1991 to 2020.

At the beginning of September, the EU climate change service Copernicus reported that this summer was the warmest in the world since records began in 1940.

The average temperature from June to August was 16.77C (62.18F), 0.66C above average. This was even warmer than the previous record of 16.48C (61.66F) set in 2019.

"We will continue to see climate records as well as more intense and frequent extreme weather events impacting society and ecosystems," Copernicus Deputy Director Samantha Burgess said in September.