Monthly review June 2023

June was too warm (rank 9 since 1961), too wet in Coswig, a little too dry in Dresden-
Klotzsche and there was plenty of sunshine (rank 8 since 1961).
Compared to the climate reference period 1961-1990, the month was 2.3 degrees too warm,
with a mean temperature of 18.6 °C. The average temperature for the month of June was
2.5 degrees too high. In the long term, the month of June has been warmer by an average of
2.2 degrees since 1961.

The sun shone for a total of 268 hours. This corresponds to an increase of 69 hours. In the
June months since 1961, the average sunshine duration in Dresden has increased
significantly by 43 hours.

Dryer and wetter regions were sometimes very close to each other in June due to convective
precipitation. The sum of all individual precipitation measurements reached 83.3 mm in
Coswig in June (in Dresden-Klotzsche only 70.6 mm; on the other hand in Coswig-Kötitz even
93.2 mm). Thus, the past June proved to be quite wet in large areas of our region. The
annual precipitation balance so far in 2023 is thus a small plus of 5 mm in Coswig in June.
The dryness in deeper soil layers continues. In Dresden-Klotzsche, precipitation in June has
decreased by about 14 mm in the long term. Added to this is the considerable warming and
the increase in the number of hours of sunshine, which significantly increase evaporation
and thus, in addition to the general decrease in precipitation, represent and will represent
an ever greater burden for the vegetation.

Weather pattern:
The weather situation, which had been established over several weeks since May, initially
continued in June. Our weather was characterised by an extremely stable high altitude
system.

In the night from 22 to 23 June, an area of rain interspersed with thunderstorms finally
moved through in conjunction with the LAMBERT low-pressure system, bringing at least 20
to 30 mm of widespread rain (Fig. 1).

At the end of June, Canada continued to fight the most severe forest fires since records
began. Approximately 500 fires occurred at the same time, about half of which are out of
control. More than eight million hectares have burned so far. In the meantime, their cloud of
ash and smoke reaches as far as Europe. The largest concentrations occurred in the
Mediterranean region. The smoke cloud also reached Germany in a weakened form. Here,
however, the particle concentration is so low that it has no health consequences.