Number of sunshine hours in Germany up significantly in recent years – meteorological service

The number of sunshine hours registered in Germany has constantly been on the rise over the past few decades, data by Germany’s Meteorological Service (DWD) has shown. Between 2011 and 2024, spring sunshine hours increased 19 percent compared to the 1961-1990 reference period, newspaper Tagesspiegel reported. Over an entire year, the increase was eight percent (121 hours) between 1991 and 2020 compared to the reference period. In the period 2011-2024, the number of sunshine hours was 13 percent higher.

“That’s an enormous increase,” said meteorologist Marcus Beyer. One reason for the increasing amount of sunshine is the growing incidence of high-pressure areas that block weather movements with fewer clouds and less precipitation. The warming climate in Germany, where average temperatures have increased 1.7 degrees Celsius since 1881, is also contributing to this trend, the DWD added.

The latest weather data from 2025 appears to confirm this trend: March this year was the second sunniest since the beginning of records, only outshone by March 2022. At the same time, the period between the beginning of February and mid-April 2025 also was the driest in the country since 1931, the DWD found. While sun time increases were strongest in southwestern Germany, the country’s northeast was sunniest in spring, with the Berlin capital region becoming the sunniest in the country in recent years.

More sunshine hours are increasing the potential output of the country’s more than five million solar PV installations, meteorologist Beyer said. “One can assume that the additional electricity output is not insignificant,” he added. Depending on the sunshine duration in May, solar PV operators might look at one of the most productive spring periods since the beginning of records, he added.