Monthly Review July 2022

Extraordinary drought situation in Meissen-Coswig-Radebeul

The second summer month of July presented itself in our region with a
Average temperature of 19.9 °C than 1.9 degrees too warm compared to the
Climate reference period 1961-1990. In July, the air temperature in Dresden is in the period
1961-2022 already increased by 2.4 K on average.

The sun shone for a total of 270 hours. This corresponds to a plus of 65 hours. The July
2022 thus achieved 10th place in terms of ranking of all July months since 1961. In July, the
Average sunshine duration in Dresden in the period 1961-2022 by 46 hours
increased.

After the already extraordinarily dry first half of 2022, the second has now brought
The summer month of July is even more striking than the reference value for 1961-1990
precipitation deficit. The sum of all individual measurements of precipitation in July was in
Coswig at only 12.8 mm. The monthly total was only 21% of the
reference value for this month. The previous annual precipitation balance for 2022 is coming
now summed up to a clear minus of 135.5 mm. The drought situation in
Soil reached a condition comparable to that of the extreme drought year 2018.
Accordingly, the plants were now location-dependent most extreme dry and
also temporarily exposed to heat stress.

The drought monitor of the Environmental Research Center Halle-Leipzig currently shows that the
persistent exceptional drought of the soil down to 1.8 m depth in our region
fully established again. The plants are generally no longer able to
withdrawing water from the soil (wilting point). The garden friends in Coswig and surroundings
try now by watering your perennials, shrubs and young trees before the
to save it from drying out safely.

weather conditions:
Justified hopes for heavy rainfall in our region have been dashed again and again. Not only high pressure areas were the deciding factor, but also the weakening and dissolution of the approaching precipitation cells on the east flank of a western flow (due to divergence in higher air layers / Fig. 1) ensured that the already very critical situation in terms of drought now in July has intensified considerably. The fires in Saxony on the border with the Czech Republic are still not under control. Unfortunately, heavy rainfall, which would have been useful to contain the fire, did not materialize in these regions of Saxony. The situation has not improved on the Czech side either.