With an average annual temperature of 10.7 °C, 2019 made its mark as the third-hottest year recorded since 1947, the year Findel’s meteorological station first began measuring temperatures. 2019’s temperatures were, on average, 1.4 °C higher than the long-term average between 1981 and 2010.
However, the year broke many other temperature records. February’s daily absolute maximum temperature record was smashed on 27 February 2019, with temperatures reaching 19.8 °C. With a summer temperature record of 39.0 °C measured on 25 July, Luxembourg saw its absolute hottest temperature recorded since 1947.
The summer was also marked by another extreme meteorological event, namely a tornado. A rather rare phenomenon in Europe, a tornado hit the municipalities of Rodange, Lamadelaine, Petange, and Bascharage in southwest Luxembourg on 9 August. 19 people were injured and a significant amount of material damage was caused.
But Luxembourg wasn’t the only part of the world marked by extreme temperatures. 2019 was overall the second-hottest year on record, bringing the hottest decade to a close, according to the European Copernicus service on climate change.
2019 was only 0.04 °C cooler than 2016, the hottest year ever on record. 2016 was marked by an especially intense El Niño episode. According to NASA, the Pacific climate cycle increased worldwide temperatures by 0.2 °C.
The decade between 2010 and 2019 was consequently the hottest recorded since weather stations opened. Europe alone experienced its hottest temperature ever last year, ahead of the years 2014, 2015, and 2018. Copernicus also confirmed that CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere rose in 2019.
