Monthly review October 2021

The month of October was 0.4 degrees too warm compared to the reference period 1961-
1990 at the weather station Dresden-Klotzsche. With a monthly mean of 10.2 °C, it thus
belonged to the rather average October months since 1961. It takes the 26th place in the
ranking since 1961.
166 hours of sunshine were recorded, a plus of 47 hours compared to the official reference
period 1961-1990. We thus experienced a very sunny October month in our region (record
since 1961). On average, the sun shines for 5.4 hours per day.
The sum of all individual measurements of precipitation reached only 5.8 mm (a minus of
34.2 mm) in October at our measuring station in Coswig. Thus, the monthly total
corresponded to just under 15% of the normal value for this month. With regard to the total
amount of precipitation, we thus registered an extraordinarily dry second autumn month
after the already very dry September. Our precipitation measuring station in Coswig proved
to be one of the absolute "tail lights" in Germany (Fig.1). Even in Dresden-Klotzsche and Garsebach somewhat higher values (13 mm each) could be measured; the average value for
Germany was about 40 mm.

Weather characteristics:
Predominantly meridional flow patterns determined the weather in Saxony. Long wave high
altitude troughs repeatedly developed over the eastern North Atlantic. In the course of
October 21, a storm and hurricane low pressure system spread to Central Europe (Fig.2). At
Dresden-Klotzsche, wind peaks reached up to 120 km/h. At this station, it is the highest wind
speed observed so far in October in the series that has existed since 1960. In other parts of
Dresden, even stronger gale-force winds up to 135 km/h were observed. In connection with
the passage of the storm low, no significant precipitation occurred in our region due to
hair effects.