For around 500,000 children and young people in Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland, it was last week, for around 660,000 schoolchildren in the other federal states, the holidays are starting.
Already on Friday afternoon, temperatures in some regions of Austria reached 31 degrees, for example in the Weinviertel, the Inn Valley and the Rhine Valley. Three days in a row with temperatures above 30 degrees is by definition a heat wave, and it will be the second this year.
peak on monday
The heat will pick up over the weekend and into next week, temperatures are expected to reach 36 degrees on Monday and it will also be oppressively muggy. There is also a lot of sun. Austria’s hottest day so far this year was June 22 with 36.2 degrees at the Austria Geosphere weather station in Bad Goisern.
Whether on the Mediterranean beach or at home on the “balcony”, it doesn’t matter for the next few days, it will be hot and sunny across southern and central Europe. The reason: an area of high pressure with air masses from North Africa.
Bathing climate in Austria
In Germany there will be bathing weather over the weekend and early next week with a few hours of sunshine and a relatively low risk of thunderstorms. Sunday in particular will remain dry across the country, and Saturday will see a maximum of individual overnight heat thunderstorms in the mountains.
Bathing lake temperatures are typical for early July, Lake Constance measures around 22 degrees and at Mondsee you can also cool off from the heat with a water temperature of 22 degrees. If you like it a little warmer, Klopeiner and Faaker See in Carinthia are already 24 degrees – more at wetter.ORF.at. In the eastern parts of the country, the Neufelder See, the Neue Donau and the Herrensee have a water temperature of just 22 degrees. The lakes will slowly warm up from the warm air over the next few days.
Climate extremes and climate crisis
While individual extreme events cannot be directly attributed to a specific cause, according to the current IPCC report, it is clear that extreme weather events such as floods, storms and heat are becoming more frequent and intense as a result of the climate crisis. That means: precipitation and storms are getting heavier, heat waves are getting hotter, and droughts are getting drier.
good mountain weather
There are also good conditions at the weekend for long mountain walks and hikes – or for hay harvesting. If so, only a few storms form, and then only in the course of the afternoon or evening. For agriculture, this means that hay can dry quickly. You can only escape the heat in the high mountains, at 3,000 meters it was nine degrees on Sunday. The ice line is more than 4,000 meters above sea level.
Increased risk of storms
At the beginning of the new week, the air will become more humid and unstable, which means that the probability of thunderstorms in the mountains will increase on Monday. Heavy thunderstorms should be feared in muggy air on Tuesday night. Current weather maps indicate that the intense heat will be ended by the middle of next week by heavy storms that will spread across much of Austria. There is potential for storms. After that it should be warm like summer, but not so hot.
Expected congestion on transit routes
The start of the holidays is always travel time: in addition to the six Austrian states, four German federal states and parts of the Netherlands are also starting their holidays. An increase in traffic volume is expected on transit routes – especially in Tyrol and Salzburg – towards the south. In addition to the motorway border crossings between Germany and Austria, longer waiting times are to be expected, especially at the border crossings between Austria and Slovenia, report traffic editors Ö3.
There is also a warning about a bottleneck on the Slovenian A1 highway near Maribor – there are fears of kilometer-long traffic jams on the main travel days. Increased passenger numbers are also expected on ÖBB’s long-distance trains. A seat reservation is recommended – more on this at oe3.ORF.at.