Austria posts hottest summer in 260 years of record keeping

Austria has recorded its hottest summer on record, according to state weather service Geosphere Austria. The country's average air temperature soared 2.6 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average, and a staggering 4.4 degrees above the 1961-1990 average, as reported on Monday. This extreme heat was observed at over 100 weather stations across the nation.

Never before have temperatures exceeded 41 degrees Celsius since weather measurements began, with one-third less precipitation than the long-term average falling across the country between June 1 and August 31. Climatologist Alexander Orlik of Geosphere Austria described the summer of 2026 as "extraordinary, extreme or unprecedented," highlighting the maximum temperatures, the duration of heatwaves, the frequency of hot days, extremely hot days, hot nights, and the unusually low number of frost days in high mountain regions.