Weather: Baltic Sea is getting warmer - storms are getting stronger
The Baltic Sea is currently two to three degrees warmer than normal at this time of year. Water temperatures are particularly high in the southern and eastern Baltic Sea. Although the water temperatures on large parts of the German coasts are still within the normal range at 17 to 18 degrees Celsius, the average temperature here has already risen by two degrees over a long period of several decades.
Even if some water sports enthusiasts are looking forward to a mild autumn, the consequences can be dramatic. According to Sebastian Wache from wetterwelt.de, the catastrophic heavy rainfall and flooding events in southern Europe show just what higher water temperatures can mean. The Mediterranean has been making headlines this year with record-breaking temperatures. Even now, the water temperatures are still four to five degrees above normal for the time of year.
Warm water favours storms
High water temperatures mean that a lot of seawater evaporates. The air is extremely humid and rich in energy. If a cold front comes along, this leads to heavy rain and lots of wind. The greater the temperature difference between the cold front and the water, the more devastating the consequences.
To put it simply, according to weather experts, warm air can absorb more moisture, which results in more energy and therefore stronger storms. This is just as true for northern Germany and the North and Baltic Seas as it is for the Mediterranean region. "The low-pressure areas meet increasingly warmer water with cold air masses and are often stronger than they were 30 or 40 years ago," Wache told our sister magazine Yacht. The rise in water temperatures is therefore not generally causing more storms, but the intensity is increasing. This means higher wind speeds and more rain.
Disasters like the Baltic Sea storm surge threaten more often
Climate change is also affecting the weather for surfers and other water sports enthusiasts. The higher temperatures also mean that the autumn season is getting longer. However, the stronger storms can also have fatal consequences for many stretches of coastline, such as the Baltic Sea floods in autumn 2023 . The effects of the high water temperatures were also evident at the turn of the year 2023/24 in extremely high rainfall and flooding in Lower Saxony. Here, warm (and humid) air masses from the south at the front of the low-pressure system met cold air from Scandinavia at the rear, resulting in extremely heavy rainfall for days on end.
The world's oceans are getting warmer and warmer, which is bad for nature and people."
With a view to the coming autumn, however, strong autumn storms can be expected again. "The world's oceans are getting warmer and warmer, which is bad for nature and people," says weather expert Wache.
