VIENNA, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Austria has just seen the second-warmest summer season in 253 years of recorded history, according to preliminary figures released Tuesday by the Central Institute of Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG).
This summer, measured from June through August, has been 2.7 degrees Celsius hotter than the long-term average, taking into account prognoses for the last few days of August. The result brings it just below the hottest summer in recorded history in 2003, which was 2.8 degrees hotter than average.
Temperatures measured at some of ZAMG's weather stations, including Vienna, Linz, Klagenfurt and Eisenstadt, even have this year's summer as the hottest on record.
ZAMG's climatologist Alexander Orlik said the result also confirms a continued trend toward hotter summers in recent decades, with 90 percent of the recorded hottest summers occurring since 1992.
The five hottest summers have all occurred post-2000, Orlik added.
Furthermore, the ZAMG said rainfall this summer has come in 30 percent lower than the long-term average, putting this year's summer among the seven driest since rainfall statistics were recorded in 1858.
