A hot summer in Leipzig: a climate map from Schwerin illustrates the rise in temperature since 1951

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Sometimes you just have to show people. Especially when Uncle Herbert, sitting at the family dinner table, once again lets his gut feeling take over, claiming that it used to be just as hot in the past and that the climate has always been changing anyway. But gut feeling has nothing to do with facts. And as far as the actual weather is concerned, Germany has measurement data spanning over 100 years. Henry Ganschof from Schwerin has simply put the data on temperature trends in Germany onto a website. Leipzig also has its own page there, which clearly illustrates the rise in temperature since the 1950s.

“The heatwave map shows, for locations across Germany, how many days above 30 degrees currently exceed the long-term average and how much this figure has changed since 1951. This allows you to see both where heat is generally particularly common in Germany and how significant the increase is locally,” says Ganschof, describing what is visible on the website with location-specific detail.

Leipzig is also above the national average

Furthermore, the figures incorporated by Ganschof reveal that Leipzig is situated in one of Germany’s heat hotspots
, where there are hardly any cooling landscape features in the surrounding area. As a result, temperatures in Leipzig are also noticeably higher than the German national average: “Compared with the national average, summers in Leipzig over the last 20 years (2006–2025) have been significantly warmer. The average summer temperature was 1.3 °C higher. Furthermore, there were, on average, 13.2 more summer days and 4.7 more hot days per year.”

And that is just the comparison with other German regions. A comparison with the recent past makes it even clearer just how much temperatures in Leipzig have actually risen. This includes the summer heatwaves that are now taking a heavy toll on the health of Leipzig’s residents.

20 more summer days

“Compared with 1951–1970, there were on average 19.9 more summer days and 7.9 more hot days per year in Leipzig between 2006 and 2025. The summer temperature was 2.1 °C higher.”

Summer days are defined as days with temperatures above 25 °C. Since 2006, an average of 56 such days have been recorded each year – almost 20 more than in the period from 1951 to 1970. But of course, the hot days – with temperatures above 30 °C – are more of a concern; their number has risen from 7.9 to 14.5 days per year.

And the trend continues to point upwards. In 2024, for example, Leipzig had 73 summer days and 24 hot days. 2025 was a little cooler, but still saw 54 summer days and 16 hot days. Both years easily achieved an average summer temperature of over 25 °C. If this trend continues, summer temperatures in Leipzig are likely to reach 28 °C by the middle of the century – already 5 °C above the average figures for the 1950s and 1960s.

And it isn’t really that long to go until the middle of the century. Barely enough time to make all the necessary investments to adapt the city to some extent to the coming temperature peaks.

The summer of 2026 already gives us a glimpse of what this might feel like, with temperature peaks of 40 degrees at the end of June, when melting joint sealant brought tram services to a standstill.

“Leipzig is expected to see another spell of hot days above 30 degrees next week,” notes Henry Ganschof. His meticulously compiled climate map
helps to contextualise the current weather conditions locally, whilst also providing an insight into how temperatures in Leipzig have changed since 1951.