Outside there were 48 degrees Celsius. The Romanian city became the “unofficial capital” of the heat

A city in Oltenia, famous for the bridge over the Danube, often has temperatures worthy of northern Africa. Calafat is among the most “hot” places in the country, and on Saturday the temperature measured in the shade was +43.4 Celsius, and the one felt by people was 48 C. Why it is so hot and how the records of the place looks.

A short distance from the national record

On July 26, 2025, at the top of the heat wave that reached Romania, the highest temperature from the ANM stations was at Calafat, +43.4 C, while in the morning they were 20 degrees Celsius less. 43 C was the air temperature, ie the standard one, communicated in the weather bulletins. Being an exceptional hot day, there were 48 degrees Celsius outside, the maps of the National Meteorological Administration show. This was the “temperature felt” at 5 pm, that is, the one that shows the subjective way in which the air temperature is perceived when we take into account the humidity of the air, but also by the UV radiation.

+43.4 C in Calafat is a temperature worthy of Sahara, but now the value was nine tenths of degree of absolute record in the city 18 years ago.

On July 24, 2007, the Meteorological Station in Calafat registered the highest official temperature in Romania for July: 44.3 ° C, in the shade. It is the highest temperature recorded in Romania in the last 74 years. The absolute record, 44.5 ° C, stands from 1951 (Ion Sion, Braila).

Also in 2007, however, in June, there were +41.3 ° C in Calafat, a value located only a few tenths of record for June in Romania ( +42 ° C in Oravița, in June 1938). Over 43 degrees Celsius were in the summer of 2000.

And the records from Calafat are proof that the summers have been warmed up in this century. Until a few decades ago, the temperature record from Calafat was “only” +41.5 C, a temperature measured in the summer of 1916. A maximum of 44 degrees Celsius seemed unpleasant. Near Calafat is Bechet, the only city where there were over 35 degrees Celsius in April.

Calafat does not record extreme temperatures only in the exceptional hot years. The weather data shows that this city has a regular part of temperatures over 40 ° C in the summer months. In four of the last five years, Calafat had temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius, and in August 2017 there were +42.2 ° C. The summer of 2023 brought to the country temperatures of 42 Celsius. In 2022, the highest temperature in the country was at Calafat, according to ANM documents.

A soil that summer reaches 60 degrees

Calafat was first mentioned in the 15th century and one of the theories is that the name would have been given by Genoese, the “skill” meaning the repair and tuing of the vessels. Basically, the “Calafat” was the material made up of cottages or cloths disappeared and soaked with pitch, with which the boats and bridges of the ships were sealed. The word comes from Turkish.

It became a city in 1855 and here the first cannon of the War of Independence of 1877 was drawn to the Ottomans in Vidin.

The city is famous for the port at the Danube, but also for the Noua Europe bridge (opened in 2013, to Vidin). It has less than 14,000 inhabitants, far from the maximum reached a quarter of a century: 21,000. In communism it was known for the railway to Craiova and for the chemical and building materials.

The weather station in Calafat was established in the summer of 1937, but the first weather measurements in the city were made between 1904 and 1916. Over time the weather station has been moved four times, a description of the Regional Meteorological Center Oltenia shows.

The area is the hottest in the country, with an important Mediterranean influence. Another factor that influences the climate in the Calafat area is the clay – sandy soil that is heated to 60 ° C, it is said in the description.

A warm place and in winter time

Sometimes Calafat is the hottest place in the country for a long time. Last year, the average annual temperature was +14.9 C, the largest in the country, along with Drobeta Turnu Severin. Last month, Calafat was the hottest place in the country (temperature of 25 C and absolute maximum of +40.4 C).

Until the new Saturday value, the highest temperature in recent years was in the summer of 2022, when Maxima reached +41.7 C.

What does a very cold July day mean: in 1991 there were only 16 degrees Celsius at lunch, but there is something that appears a few decades in the city of Oltenia

Meteo records at Calafat

• Maximum absolute temperature: +44.3 ° C on July 24, 2007
• Absolute minimum temperature: – 29.2 ° C, on January 8, 1947
• The coldest July night: +9 C in 1913
• The thickest layer of snow at the weather station: 67 cm, in January 1963