Society: Summer heat: At which temperatures people feel comfortable

2023-07-02 06:11:51

Society Summer heat: At which temperatures people feel comfortable

According to experts, a “hot day” has an air temperature of 30 degrees Celsius and more. photo

© Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa

Summer, heat, happiness? A survey sheds light on whether people in this country find warm weather good at all. The result may send a shiver down the spine of some people.

Heat, no thanks: Around 60 percent of adults prepare real Summer days with more than 25 degrees no special feeling of well-being. This is the result of a representative survey by the opinion research institute Yougov on behalf of the German Press Agency. Women and men are quite unanimous on this topic. Meteorologists define “summer days” as days when the maximum is at least 25.0 degrees in the shade. According to the experts, a “hot day” (formerly also called a tropical day) has an air temperature of 30 degrees Celsius and more.

In response to the question “At what daily temperature do you personally feel most comfortable?” 54 percent of adults in Germany indicated the range “20 to 24 degrees” and 7 percent even “under 20 degrees”.

30 percent feel most comfortable at “25 to 29 degrees”, only every hundredth adult likes it particularly when it’s hotter than 35 degrees outside. The rest didn’t specify.

Federal government plans “heat plan Germany”

Young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 are particularly fond of cooler weather: 12 percent in this age group stated that they felt most comfortable with a daytime temperature below 20 degrees. However, a particularly large number of 18 to 24 year olds were at a loss and did not provide any information.

On the other hand, the older people were particularly sure: Among the over 55 year olds, only 6 percent said “below 20 degrees”. A huge majority likes it between 20 and 29 degrees warm (59 percent “20 to 24 degrees”, 30 percent “25 to 29 degrees”), only a few are on 30 degrees and more. In a comparison of age groups, the 25 to 34-year-olds were particularly heat-affine.

The federal government is planning a “Germany heat plan” this summer. It is about better prevention of health hazards and deaths from heat. This was announced by Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) in June. A “concerted action” is planned with representatives from nursing, the municipalities, medicine and science. France already has a corresponding plan.

Heat records in summer 2022

According to the European Environment Agency of the EU, heat waves are becoming more frequent, more intense and longer-lasting as a result of climate change.

The summer of 2022 was already a “summer of heat waves”. It was actually the warmest that has ever been recorded in Europe: In Spain and Portugal, temperatures rose to over 45 degrees Celsius in some cases, but heat records were also measured in Sweden, among other places. And heat kills, as shown by the excess mortality in many countries in summer, especially in the three-week high summer phase from mid-July 2022.

Using seasonal forecasts, the DWD has calculated a high probability that people will also face a hot, dry summer in 2023 with many hot, strenuous summer days above 30 degrees.

dpa