Temperatures could reach 40 degrees Celsius at their hottest, cooling down to 24 degrees in the "coldest" hours.Continue reading
Both longstanding national and Budapest heat records were broken on Wednesday afternoon, reaching 37.8 and 36.6 degrees Celsius respectively. Even Hungary’s summer electricity consumption reached a historical high.
The former national record of 37.7 degrees Celsius, recorded in Sopron, had not been broken since 2002. It was in both Dombegyház in Békés County and Berettyóújfalu in Hajdú-Bihar County that the record of .1 degree more was reached.
In Budapest, the former record of 36.1 degrees Celsius was also set in 2002. The new record, set in Újpest, is a greater jump than the national one, being .5 degrees hotter than ever before.
According to the National Meteorological Service, the highest minimum temperature daily record was also broken in the capital, when, at the Budapest-Lágymányos station, temperatures only went down to 23.8 degrees around dawn.
Thursday is supposed to be this year’s hottest day. Temperatures are expected to reach 33-39 degrees Celsius, cooling down to between 22 and 27 degrees Celsius in the evenings. After this final maximum, temperatures should start going back down to bearable levels, starting with Hungary’s north-western regions on Friday and heading east on Saturday.
Hungary has been covered in temperatures of over 30 degrees Celsius due to warm winds of African origin coming in from the south-west. Heat alerts around the country are still in effect.
Electricity bills are also dropping some jaws this year, as MAVIR Ltd. reported that a new historical record of 6,660 megawatts was reached in Hungary’s summer electricity consumption, with an average daily temperature of 27.7 degrees.
Hungary’s all-time electricity consumption record was set on February 12, reaching 7,119 megawatts between 17:45 and 18:00.
Featured photo illustration by Noémi Bruzák/MTI
