The first half of February this year was like a cooler April in Hungary, with the average temperature breaking all previous records in the last 124 years — a trend seen across much of Europe.
The average temperature in the first two weeks of the month was 8.1 degrees Celsius (46.5 Fahrenheit) on average nationwide, national meteorological service HungaroMet Zrt. wrote on its Facebook page on Thursday.
In eight days, 14 records were broken at the beginning of February, five of which were national records while nine were recorded in the capital of Budapest.
Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet noted that record-breaking morning temperatures were reached in multiple places across Hungary in the first half of February.
[pp id=50255]
“In other words, the morning temperature records exceeded the previous records by almost 3 degrees on average,” the paper wrote.
The weather service added that the average mean temperature of 8.1 degrees Celsius in the first half of the month was an extraordinary 7.6 degrees Celsius above the average for the years 1991-2020 and almost 3 degrees Celsius above the average for 2016, which was the mildest since the beginning of the 20th century.
During the first half of the month, average temperatures in lowland areas were mostly between 7 and 9 degrees Celsius, which is normal for late March and early April.
“Even in the highest mountains, the average for the two weeks was well above freezing, near 3 degrees Celsius,” the report read.
[pp id=86197]
They also pointed out that the national average of 8.1 degrees Celsius was 2.3 degrees above the average for March in the years 1991-2020, meaning that the first half of February this year was similar to a cooler April.
They noted that in April 2021, a mean temperature of 8.5 degrees Celsius was recorded, not much warmer than the first half of this February in Hungary.
According to the analysis, the daily mean temperature exceeded the previous maximum for the first half of February in the last 124 years on all three days from Feb. 9 to 11. On Feb. 10, the national average daily mean temperature was 12.7 degrees Celsius, the highest for the whole of February and the second-highest day since the beginning of the 20th century, taking into account all three winter months.
This trend is being seen across Europe. Germany, for example, had its warmest first half of February on record, and meteorologists predict that weather forecasts signal it will be by far the warmest February ever recorded, even if the weather cools towards the end of the month.
The news comes after Europe has suffered record-breaking hot summers in recent years, along with severe drought that continues to threaten farmers and human health.
