Summer has officially arrived and it’s getting uncomfortably warm in a number of places.
One of them is Germany were the temperatures were so high that officials put speed limits on usually unrestricted sections of the Autobahn.
While it sounds odd that temperatures would cause the enforcement of speed limits, Bloomberg reports officials were worried the high temperatures “could create potentially deadly cracks” on the Autobahn. As a result, some sections of the roadway carried a speed limit of 62 mph (100 km/h).
Also Read: German Autobahns – The Do’s and Don’ts of High-Speed Motoring
Forecasts suggested temperatures could top 100.7° F (38.2° C) today and some meteorologists even believed the country’s all-time record of 104.5° F (40.3° C) could fall. While the record wasn’t beaten, The Weather Channel reports Coschen, Germany had a high of 101.5° F (38.6° C).
There were no immediate reports of damage to the Autobahn, but it has happened in the past. This poses a potentially dangerous situation as vehicles could be traveling at speeds well in excess of 100 mph (161 km/h) and then encounter a cracked or buckled section of pavement. If this scenario were to happen, a driver could hit the road hazard and potentially lose control of their vehicle.
Despite being internationally renowned, German roads seems to be susceptible to high temperatures. As DW.com noted, a number of roadways had to be closed earlier this month when sections of pavement cracked as temperatures topped 86° F (30° C).
Older roads are more susceptible to failure, but the issue appears to be that the roads weren’t designed with high temperatures in mind. This could become a serious problem in the future as global warming is being blamed for causing hotter summers in typically moderate climates.
