Hottest day: Berlin police deploy water cannon to beat the heat

Water cannon? Yes, please! Berlin police resorted to an unusual measure: they quickly deployed two water cannon to cool down the public. Of course, the jets were far gentler than at demonstrations.

The water-spraying vehicles toured the capital, delighting locals and tourists alike. Among the locations they targeted were the Brandenburg Gate, Potsdamer Platz and the Reichstag building.

Germany has been in the grip of a heatwave for several days, with temperatures rising to near the 40-degree mark or even above it. The situation is particularly taxing because in many places there has been barely any night-time cooling for an extended period, with temperatures staying high even at night.

According to provisional data from the German Weather Service, last night was Germany’s warmest since records began. The highest reading was recorded in Kubschütz in eastern Saxony, where the temperature at night did not drop below 29.4 degrees Celsius.

A provisional daytime high of 41.5 degrees was measured at 16:20 on Saturday in Möckern-Drewitz in Saxony-Anhalt.

Sunday is likely to mark the peak of the heatwave. The German Weather Service (DWD) is again expecting extremely high temperatures of between 37 and 41 degrees. Over the course of the day and into the night to Monday, local heat-related thunderstorms are also possible, which may bring torrential rain, hail and in some areas severe gusts of wind.

On the night to Monday, temperatures will already fall significantly, with lows of between 23 and 19 degrees. The cooling continues during Monday itself: highs will only reach 27 to 31 degrees, with periods of rainfall and isolated thunderstorms.