2018.12.27: Berlin – Fast keine Sonne im Dezember / Almost no Sunshine in December

Fragt man Berliner, was sie am Winter am meisten stört, so ist es normalerweise nicht die Kälte. Mit Temperaturen die normalerweise in den einstelligen Plusgraden liegen ist häufig knapp zu warm für Schnee. Vielmehr stört die Berliner der bedeckte, oft tagelang konturenlose Himmel. Auch 2018 brachte wieder eine “Hochnebelsuppe” vom Feinsten – wie die Daten der Station Berlin Dahlem belegen. Seit über einer Woche gab es keinen einzigen Moment Sonnenschein; insgesamt gab es im Dezember bislang unter 15 Stunden mit uneingeschränktem Naturlicht.


If you ask residents of Berlin about what annoys them most about their city’s winter, it usually isn’t the cold. Temperatures usually reaching single-digit positive values, it typically is to warm for snow. Much rather, the reason for the Berliners frustration is the overcast sky, which often stays without any contours for days. 2018, too, brought one of these “grey soups” to Berlin – evidenced by the data collected at the meteorological observatory Berlin Dahlem. In the past week, there hasn’t been a single moment of sunshine; in total, December has brought less than 15 hours of unimpeded insolation so far this year.

2018.02.12 – European Windstorm Update: Storm QUINN heading for the UK, Ireland and Iceland

There are currently two storms around Europe.

Storm PHILINE,  currently located over Denmark, is expected to more or less dissipate within the next 24 hours, and is currently only bringing storm gusts to a fairly small area consisting of Denmark and the far north of Germany.

However, from the northern Atlantic, a new storm is approaching: severe storm QUINN, currently located to the northwest of Ireland, is packing gusts exceeding 120km/h and has a central pressure of 988hPa. It is expected to strike Ireland and, a few hours later, the UK in the coming night, bringing wide-spread storm gusts and some severe storm gusts, especially in exposed locations. The storm will move northeast or north-northeast, and will also bring severe storm gusts to parts of Iceland by tomorrow morning. The French coast may be impacted between tomorrow morning and the early afternoon, as well. Storm warnings and watches have been issued accordingly. See below.

Below: ESC European Windstorm Overview, Warnings and Watches.