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Independent German meteorologists have been increasingly criticizing the Deutsche Wetterdienst (DWD) – German Weather Service – for its climate activism and alarmism. The once staid yet highly professional and competent organization used to be among the most respected in the world.

But that appears to be no longer the case today as meteorologists ramp up their harsh criticism of the DWD’s forays into climate alarmism. They are clearly losing respect for and confidence in the organization.

Brandishing the “climate change bludgeon”

The latest wave of criticism was unleashed by statements made by the DWD spokesman Gerhard Lux in response to a spate of thunderstorms and deluges that have hit Central Europe in recent weeks. Lux claims that it is “another indication of climate change“. Moreover, one leading German meteorologist claims that the DWD has been overdoing it in issuing weather warnings for every perceived anomaly. According to Dominik Jung at Yahoo News:

Since the beginning of June the DWD has issued storm warnings on 36 of 66 calendar days.”

Although high profile meteorologist Jung says a number of these were of course legitimate, he feels overall the DWD has been overdoing it with the warnings:

Just how many of these storm warnings were actually justified, however, is not listed. I could list some examples of false storm warnings. It is as if nothing else could be expected that after the severe thunderstorms of the last weeks, immediately again the ‘climate change bludgeon’ is being brandished.”

Jung doesn’t understand what all the fuss over the recent “unusually rainy” weather is all about, noting that 6 of the last 8 months were drier than normal, and that overall “it all evens out”.

The opposite of what models predicted!

The UK’s Met Office was not the one proclaiming visions of barbeque summers. Leading experts in Germany in the early and mid 2000s warned of a future of “Sahara-summers” for Central Europe, claiming that we had to prepare for “hotter and drier” summers. Here Jung quotes an article by German Bild daily that featured IPCC climate scientist Professor Mojib Latif. Bild wrote:

‘The probability of an extremely hot summer is increasing.’ The heat and missing rain for Professor Latif are ‘indices that global warming in Germany has arrived’.“

But Jung reminds us that precisely the opposite has actually happened since: “11 summers later, we have yet to see one that has been drier than normal.” Jung adds that “Germany is still miles away from Sahara summers” and summarizes:

In 2003 the heat and drought were signs of climate change, 2014 is now a month of July that is too wet? Who is supposed to understand that?”

The term climate change “overstretched”

Jung also uses Latif’s prediction of warm winters with little snow and frost ahead for Germany as another example of a bad forecast (a prediction he made on April 1, just after David Viner’s made his now much ridiculed prediction). Today we see that here too the exact opposite took place. What followed was a series of brutal winters, to which Latif responded by claiming a cold winter does not refute a warming climate. But this is a reaction that baffles meteorologist Jung, who in turn points out:

Now we are being told that ONE overly wet month of July supports the climate change? The term climate change is being stretched.”

Science groping in the dark

Jung criticizes the constant flip-flopping that regularly goes on in climate science and asks: “Who takes this back and forth seriously?“…”The thought that the science is groping in the dark is becoming more pronounced than ever.”

Jung even goes so far as to question their competence and notes that “many people are no longer really taking it all seriously.” Jung speculates that the alarmism, no matter what the weather does, is in part motivated by the desire for more funding.

Retired meteorologist on DWD: “Makes me sad”

Retired meteorologist Klaus-Eckart Puls is even harsher with his criticism of the DWD and their recent climate alarmism shenanigans. Puls himself worked 30 years for the DWD. In an e-mail he communicated his reaction:

The DWD is developing more and more into a ‘political climate-alarmist’ institution – that makes me sad because I was actively in service 30 years.”