Monthly review August 2021

The month of August was 0.7 degrees too cold compared to the reference period 1961-1990
at the weather station Dresden-Klotzsche. With a monthly mean of 17.0 °C, it was one of the
coolest August months since 1961 (61 years). It was the third coldest August since the turn
of the century; only in 2005 and 2006 was it even cooler in August.
Only 165 hours of sunshine were recorded, a minus of 26 hours compared to the official
reference period 1961-1990. The record is still held unreservedly by August 1973 with 281
hours.

The sum of all individual measurements of precipitation reached 101.0 mm in July at our
measuring station in Coswig. Thus, the monthly sum corresponded to 140% of the normal
value for this month. We thus registered an above-average third summer month in terms of
the total amount of precipitation that fell. The exceptionally drought situation, related to the
total soil up to about 1.8 m, has weakened in our region - away from the highest now to the
second highest drought level (according to the drought monitor of the Helmholtz Center for
Environmental Research).

Weather Characteristics:
The month of August was predominantly characterized by low-pressure activity or trough
layers over Central Europe, which were associated with the supply of often moist and
Relatively cool marine air masses. The spatial differences in the monthly totals of
precipitation were quite large, as large-scale rainfall was intensified by showers and
Thunderstorms in some areas. In almost all areas of Germany there was an excess of
precipitation and everywhere a deficit of sunshine.

In the last third of the month, our weather was dominated by a pronounced omega weather
situation (Fig. 1). Eastern Germany was in the area of an altitude low, with heavy rainfall also
occurring in our region.