Hottest ever August: as temperature soar, Rhine levels plummet

The latest data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, shows that in Europe this August was by far the warmest on record. Temperatures last month were 1.7 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average. That's almost a degree higher than the previous record for August back in another warm year, 2018.

Overall it was a very hot summer in Europe and the European temperature anomalies for this June, July and August combined show an overall warming trend, with the summer of 2022 rising up at the end, to 1.3 degrees Celsius above average.

The same time-frame on a global scale shows a warmer than average summer across many areas of the northern hemisphere, but Pakistan was cooler as it experienced heavy rains leading to devastating floods that claimed fourteen hundred lives.

We will now take a look at the river Rhine in Germany, where this year's record dry weather left water levels so low that many barges could only carry a quarter of their usual load. The crisis has left the river transport sector rushing to adapt.

Kristan Kahl is the Head of Sustainability at Contargo. 

"I think a lot of people are aware that this is going to increase due to climate change, that we will have variations of high water, low water, high water and low water and that we have to react accordingly."

Barges on the river Rhine continue to carry lighter loads as the water level remains low. Supply chains are severely disrupted and for Arndt Puderbach, the Terminal Manager of Contargo, it's a frustrating time.

"Water levels are already a concern for us and that's a very unsatisfactory situation for us because the demand is there, but unfortunately we can't offer the capacity to our customers and offer the service that we would like to offer.

In 2018 we had a