Year 2024 - day by day

According to the Republic Hydrometeorological Service of Serbia, this summer has been the hottest summer on record. As a reminder, spring this year was the hottest spring, as well as winter, and autumn last year, so this is the fourth season in a row that breaks the record. See what each day looked like this summer separately in the picture below, which shows the maximum daily temperatures for the whole of Serbia and their deviation from the average of the maximum daily temperatures from the period 1961-1990 (known in meteorology and climatology as the standard normal period).

During this summer, we only had a maximum temperature below average for 7 days (blue dates), of which only three days were tied, from July 2nd to 4th. The other 4 days with below-average temperatures were isolated and with deviations that were actually very close to the average, while on the other hand, for some days, the positive anomaly from the average went up to 10 °C. After three consecutive "pleasant" days in July, there was a heat wave that lasted about 2 weeks on average, and the longest uninterrupted series of temperatures above average lasted more than three weeks, from August 7th until the end of August. By the way, this August series continued in September, so today's cold snap and drop in temperature probably means that we have been with temperatures that are significantly above average for a good month.

With high temperatures and heat waves, there is usually a drought, which was more than evident at the end of this summer. According to preliminary analyses, the drought in the period from March to the end of August this year was more severe than the drought in 2012. Drought conditions and high temperatures this summer have triggered and facilitated a number of negative consequences, from poor yields in agriculture, through problems in water supply, low water levels, dry riverbeds, reduced electricity production, and increased consumption, forest fires, etc.

High temperatures and heatwaves are probably the most obvious face of climate change and global warming, and as humans continue to add new amounts of CO2 to the atmosphere, the new hot summers ahead will come as no surprise.