Heat Record in Austria: Warmest Night Since Measurements Began with 27.5 Degrees in Lower Austria

Record Values in Vienna and Lower Austria

Records also tumbled in Vienna: At the Jubiläumswarte in the Ottakring district, the temperature did not fall below 27.3 degrees Celsius during the night – the nighttime minimum at no weather station in the Republic had ever been this high before. In Vienna's inner city, the thermometer dropped only to 26.1 degrees; at 11 p.m. it still showed 32 degrees there, and at midnight Vienna, Linz, and Retz were still at over 30 degrees. In Vienna, the thermometer did not drop below 27 degrees for the entire night.

Overall, GeoSphere Austria registered a so-called tropical night – a night in which the temperature does not fall below the 20-degree mark – at around 90 of the approximately 280 operated weather stations. "The air mass is already so extremely hot that tropical nights have been observed up to an altitude of 1,000 meters above sea level," explained GeoSphere climatologist Alexander Orlik. Provincial capitals outside Vienna also recorded unusually high nighttime values.

The list of affected cities reads like a cross-section of Austria: Eisenstadt reported 22.3 degrees, Graz-Straßgang and Klagenfurt HTL1 each reached 21.7 degrees, Bregenz came in at 20.8 degrees, and Salzburg-Freisaal at 20.6 degrees. St. Pölten recorded a low of 24 degrees, closely followed by Linz with 24.5 degrees – fifth place in the night's heat ranking.

Tropical Nights up to Mid-Level Mountain Regions

The extent of the heat into higher elevations is remarkable. At Kolomansberg in Salzburg province, at 1,113 meters above sea level, it likewise did not cool below 21.7 degrees. In the Leiser Berge, it stayed at 25.7 degrees, and at the Buchberg at 25.5 degrees. These values show that the heatwave brought hardly any cooling even in mid-level mountain regions, and the tropical night definition was also reached there.

The ongoing heatwave is unprecedented, said Manuel Oberhuber from the ORF weather editorial team: "Eine so warme Nacht hat es in Österreich noch nie gegeben." He described the past night in Vienna as the "bisher wärmste Nacht seit Messbeginn". At the same time, Oberhuber announced a slight easing: In the second half of the week, there would be "Zeit zum Durchlüften".

40 Degrees in Vienna: The Historic Mark Reached for the First Time

Already on the preceding afternoon, the federal capital had reported extreme heat, and the subsequent night brought hardly any cooling. At 4:35 p.m., the Vienna-Innere Stadt measuring station registered exactly 40 degrees Celsius – the highest temperature ever measured in Vienna. This was the first time the 40-degree mark had been reached in Vienna; the previous national daily record had been 40.5 degrees, measured on August 8 in Bad Deutsch-Altenburg in Lower Austria.

Sunday was, according to GeoSphere Austria, also the second-hottest day in Austria since measurements began, after August 8. In Lower Austria, 39.9 degrees were measured on Sunday in Langenlebarn, in Innsbruck it was 38.7 degrees, in Eisenstadt 38.2 degrees. The highest measured temperature in Upper Austria was also 38.2 degrees: on Sunday in Enns, Linz, and Wels, and on Saturday already in Bad Goisern.

Extreme values were also recorded in Styria and Salzburg: In Mooslandl in Styria, it was 37.4 degrees on Sunday, as it was at Salzburg airport. In Vorarlberg, it was hottest in Bludenz at 37.3 degrees. GeoSphere Austria spoke, in view of these values, of an "unprecedented" heatwave that had affected large parts of the country simultaneously.

Ongoing Strain on Monday

On Monday, the situation remained tense: In the east of Austria, it was once again swelteringly hot with up to 39 degrees, and locally in the far east, up to 40 degrees were once again possible. During the day as well, 40 degrees were reachable again according to Oberhuber, so that the already historic night continued directly into another extreme heat day.

Dramatic Situation in the Kaunertal

The persistent heat had already had concrete consequences over the weekend: Particularly dramatic was the situation in the Kaunertal in Tyrol, where around 200 people were temporarily trapped, and the mobile phone network also failed. The combination of blocked roads and missing communication made the work of the helpers on site significantly more difficult and highlighted the dangers that such a heatwave can bring in alpine regions.

Climatologist Alexander Orlik pointed out that the current nighttime temperatures were the expression of an "extrem heißen Luftmasse" that had settled over Central Europe. When nighttime cooling is absent, the body cannot regenerate over hours, which represents a serious health risk particularly for elderly people, the sick, and children. The authorities called for darkening apartments during the day, drinking plenty of fluids, and moving physical exertion to the morning and evening hours.

The previous Austrian record for a night dated from August 2017 and stood at 26.9 degrees, measured in Vienna's inner city on August 2. At that time, 26.9 degrees was recorded in Vienna's inner city as the lowest nighttime value. The fact that this value has now been surpassed not only in Vienna, but also at the Buchbergwarte in Lower Austria and at the Jubiläumswarte, underscores the nationwide dimension of the current weather event.

Classification and Outlook

With a nighttime low of 27.3 degrees Celsius at the Vienna Jubiläumswarte and 27.5 degrees at the Buchbergwarte, a new Austrian record was set according to GeoSphere Austria. In the night leading into Monday, the previous record high values for nighttime temperatures in the country were officially surpassed, as the authority announced. The Republic thus experienced the hottest night in its measurement history.

The development is in line with a series of heat records that have been recorded in Central Europe in recent years. Meteorologists see in the accumulation of such extreme values a clear signal of climate change. Oberhuber put it pointedly: "Eine so warme Nacht hat es in Österreich noch nie gegeben" – and at the same time pointed out that it would not be until the second half of the week that there would be "Zeit zum Durchlüften".

For the coming days, the ORF weather editorial team announced gradual relief: After the extreme Monday, temperatures should slowly decrease in the following days, so that nighttime lows could fall back below the 20-degree mark. Until then, the explicit recommendation of the weather center applies to pay particular attention to children and vulnerable people in one's own vicinity and to take in sufficient fluids.