Overview
- New data from DWD and Saxony’s LfULG show 2025 was about 1.6°C warmer than the 1961–1990 average with an annual precipitation shortfall of roughly 19 percent.
- Sunshine hours were unusually high with an estimated 31 percent surplus, even as many months felt wet to residents.
- Groundwater stayed below the long-term mean for a twelfth straight year, described by officials as one of the strongest deficits on record.
- Rivers ran low with annual discharges mostly 30–70 percent of normal and some Middle Elbe inflows near 20 percent, complicating reservoir refills.
- Farmers largely managed good yields in 2025, yet growing reliance on irrigation and reduced tillage underscores mounting ecological and water-management pressures.