Offenbach, 30 March 2023 – According to the provisional calculations by the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), March 2023 was the wettest March since 2001 and somewhat short of sunshine. This is in sharp contrast to March 2022, which was the fourth driest and sunniest since measurements began, as recorded in the climate archive of Germany’s national meteorological service. The first spring month of 2023 was also relatively mild so that the vegetation period had started in many areas by the middle of the month. On average, forsythia – a signal for the start of phenological early spring – started to flower as early as 15 March, which is around 10 days earlier than is historically normal. This is the summary announced by the DWD after an initial analysis of the observations from its approximately 2,000 measuring stations.
