Austria recorded an all-time high temperature of 41°C (105.8°F) on Tuesday. The measurement was taken in the Vienna-Stammersdorf district of Vienna.
All-time high temperature recorded in Vienna-Stammersdorf
The Austrian public broadcaster ORF, citing GeoSphere Austria, reported the 41°C measurement. This reading exceeded a previous measurement of 40.8°C recorded earlier on the same day.
GeoSphere Austria issued a red warning—its highest weather warning—for Vienna, northern Burgenland, and northeastern Lower Austria for Tuesday and Wednesday. Temperatures exceeding 40°C (104°F) were also recorded in other parts of Austria.
Forecast and environmental impact
Meteorologists forecast the heat wave is expected to peak on Tuesday and Wednesday, with temperatures potentially climbing higher than 41°C on Wednesday. Austria recently experienced its fourth-warmest July on record.
GeoSphere Austria stated that the precipitation deficit reached 90 per cent at some measuring stations. In response to the heat, the source attributes the earlier ripening of apricots to global warming; apricots have begun ripening approximately 20 days earlier than the average observed during the 1961–1991 period.
Agricultural and local response
The previous temperature record in Austria was 40.5°C, set on August 8, 2013, in Bad Deutsch-Altenburg.
It is 'increasingly difficult' for farmers to feed animals as drought dries pastures.
In Vienna, restaurant owner Nasir Dis, 60, described the weather as 'a catastrophe.' Dis told AFP that 'very few' people were coming to eat and 'Everyone just wants to barricade themselves at home.'
The heat has also impacted the region, as Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, recorded its highest temperature ever at 40.8°C on Tuesday, breaking a record of 39.9°C set the previous day.
