Germany’s national weather service has revised its provisional temperature record from last weekend’s heatwave, saying the country may have experienced even higher temperatures than initially reported.
The German Weather Service (DWD) said on Thursday that final figures are still pending, but a new review of the data suggests the peak temperature reached 41.8 degrees Celsius.
The DWD had previously reported a provisional record of 41.7 degrees in Neissemünde-Coschen, located in the eastern state of Brandenburg, on Sunday. That was the third consecutive day on which a new national high had been recorded during the heatwave.
The agency had earlier measured 41.3 degrees in the western city of Saarbrücken on Friday and 41.5 degrees in Möckern-Drewitz, in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, on Saturday.
The DWD said that during the verification of measurements from the Möckern-Drewitz station it discovered an outage between 4:37 pm and 4:45 pm local time.
A further analysis of the raw data indicated that the missing reporting period coincided with the time when the highest temperatures occurred.
“After filling in the reporting gap, the provisional maximum temperature rises from 41.5 to 41.8 degrees Celsius,” the weather service said.
“If confirmed, Möckern-Drewitz would replace the provisionally announced record of 41.7 degrees in Neissemünde-Coschen.”