We have just experienced the hottest summer in recorded history in Serbia, as officially confirmed by a new bulletin from the Republic Hydrometeorological Service (RHMZ).
This summer was on average more than three degrees warmer than normal and nearly a full degree hotter than the previous record summer of 2012, reports the portal Klima101.
This refers to the so-called meteorological summer, which differs from the calendar summer and lasts from June 1 to August 31.
According to RHMZ data, five heatwaves were recorded in Serbia during the summer. These are periods of at least five consecutive days with very high or extremely high temperatures.
Two heatwaves—one in mid-July and another in mid-August—were particularly prolonged and intense, with temperatures as much as 10 degrees above normal for those periods.
Such a number of extremely hot periods in a single summer was once unimaginable. In the mid-20th century, on average, there was only one heatwave per year in Serbia, whereas in the last decade, that number has increased to four heatwaves annually.
This summer also saw several other records: in Zaječar, out of a total of 92 summer days, as many as 78 were tropical, meaning temperatures exceeded 30 degrees.
Almost all weather stations recorded a record number of tropical days, and even in traditionally cold Sjenica, there were 25 days with temperatures above 30 degrees.
Due to the urban heat island effect, Belgrade traditionally experiences the highest number of tropical nights, during which temperatures do not drop below 20 degrees. However, this year saw a record number—60 tropical nights in the overheated capital. This broke the previous record of 51 tropical nights from 2012 (for comparison, last year there were 31 such nights).
In its report, RHMZ also mentioned deviations in the so-called heat stress index, which measures the subjective feeling of heat, factoring in variables like humidity (important for assessing the sensation of heat and health risks for the population).
This index stood out particularly in Belgrade, where, according to RHMZ, its highest value was recorded on July 17 in the capital: on that day, the maximum temperature was 37.1 degrees, but the perceived temperature reached a staggering 46.2 degrees.
This was the highest value of this index recorded during the summer of 2024.
In its bulletin, RHMZ also offers an analysis of certain data compared to earlier periods (1961-1990), which is important if we want to view extreme events in the context of climate change—and the summer of 2024 could be described as a prolonged extreme event.
Compared to the second half of the 20th century, the summer of 2024 in Belgrade was 6.1 degrees hotter, and the average air temperature across the entire territory of Serbia fell into the “extremely hot” category.
(Nova Ekonomija, 18.09.2024)