Meteorology

In Germany 2024 the hottest year ever

Extreme weather events are more frequent and more intense

17 December 2024

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Key points

Global warming increases tsunami risk in the Mediterranean
Mediterranean, flood risk 10% to 30% within 50 years

3' min read

According to the German Meteorological Service (Dwd), 2024 was the hottest year since in-depth measurements began in 1881.

The figure is already evident about two weeks before the end of the year: 'Germany has never been as hot as 2024 since the end of the 19th century,' explained Tobias Fuchs, Dwd's Climate and Environment Director.

2023 had already been the hottest year in Germany, while 2022 was one of the two hottest years ever recorded.

On 30 December, the Dwd will publish its official annual report for 2024. At that time, further details on temperature, precipitation and sunshine duration records will be provided.

The consequences of further global warming are becoming evident with more frequent and more intense extreme weather events, added Dwd Director Fuchs, according to whom "as a society and as individuals, we must better protect our climate".

Global warming increases tsunami risk in the Mediterranean

Global warming could significantly increase the danger of tsunamis in the Mediterranean in the coming decades.

This is what emerges from two studies that have just been published in the international journal 'Scientific Reports' entitled 'Including sea-level rise and vertical land movements in probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment for the Mediterranean sea' and in the volume published by Elsevier entitled 'Probabilistic tsunami hazard and risk analysis', in which researchers from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology collaborated.

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The results, from the European Savemedcoasts2 and Tsumaps-Neam projects coordinated by INGV, show that the predicted rise in sea level caused by global warming, combined with coastal geological movements, could potentially increase the risk for more than 150 million people living in this area.

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The studies analyse the impact of rising sea levels, currently about 4 mm per year but accelerating, based on projections up to 2150 provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Ipcc).

Mediterranean, flood risk 10% to 30% within 50 years

"By the end of this century, the global average sea level could rise by up to about 1.1 metres compared to today," explains Marco Anzidei, a researcher at Ingv, co-author of the study and coordinator of the Savemedcoasts2 project. - This potentially represents a growing risk for Mediterranean coastal populations that we cannot underestimate'.

Within the next 50 years, the Mediterranean coasts will see a 10% to 30% increase in the probability of 1-2 metre floods due to tsunamis: these phenomena are becoming not only more frequent, but also more dangerous due to climate change.

The two studies mentioned, to which the Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale, the University of Bologna and the University Federico II of Naples contributed for Italy, indicate that more than 150 million people living in this area are at risk.

The studies, both led by Anita Grezio of Ingv in Bologna, analyse the impact of rising sea levels caused by global warming, which is currently about 4 millimetres per year.

"By the end of this century, the global average sea level could rise by up to about 1.1 metres compared to today," says Marco Anzidei of the Ingv National Earthquake Observatory in Rome, co-author of the articles and coordinator of the European Savemedcoasts2 project.

"This potentially represents a growing risk particularly for the lower Mediterranean coasts," adds Anzidei, "one of the most densely populated areas in the world. The key innovation of the two papers was the integration of data on vertical coastal movements, which can amplify the local effects of sea-level rise.

"We have considered how geological movements can add to marine uplift," Grezio continues, "exacerbating the risk in areas where the ground tends to sink. The importance of these analyses is crucial for planning and risk management in coastal areas.