forecast
Late winter weather in parts of Germany
Snow on yellow daffodils, also called daffodils, standing on the side of the road. photo
© Marius Bulling/dpa
As the saying goes, April does whatever it wants. At the moment he wants it cold and wet. On the one hand, this brings beautiful winter landscapes. On the other hand, there are also slippery roads and accidents. And it remains wintry and partly frosty for now.
An onset of winter at the weekend has in parts Germany has led to white landscapes and sometimes also to traffic problems. According to the German Weather Service (DWD), there were “decent” amounts of fresh snow in some regions on Sunday night. In parts of Hesse, fallen trees caused obstructions on the roads in the morning. It also snowed heavily in the Ore Mountains at the weekend, with a blanket of snow forming again, especially above 600 meters.
The snow leader on Sunday was a weather station in Kreuth-Glashütte in Upper Bavaria, where 26 centimeters were recorded, as qualified meteorologist Lars Kirchhübel from the DWD in Offenbach said. According to him, at least 16 centimeters fell in Bad Brambach-Hohendorf in the Vogtland district in Saxony, in Bad Hindelang in the Allgäu and in Borgentreich in the east of North Rhine-Westphalia. For the Borgentreich station, which has existed since 1979, this is the highest value recorded so far for an April day, said Kirchhübel. Snow, hail, black ice and heavy rain had already caused numerous accidents in traffic on Saturday. The new week will probably start cold and wintry.
It’s increasingly turning from snow to frost
The German Weather Service (DWD) expects lows of up to minus six degrees on Monday night. During the day the sky is likely to vary from cloudy to very cloudy. Longer-lasting precipitation is expected to fall in the Alps, sometimes as snow at lower altitudes. The meteorologists are expecting showers, especially in the north and west as well as in the middle of Germany. According to the forecast, the maximum temperatures on Monday will be between three and eleven degrees.
The focus when it comes to the weather is increasingly changing from snow to frost, explained DWD meteorologist Kirchhübel. He warned that the low nighttime temperatures were dangerous for the plant world, which had already advanced far beyond the area. “Flowering plants in particular are at risk and must be protected.”
On Tuesday night there could be frost down to minus seven degrees again. According to the forecasts, it will remain very cloudy in the south on Tuesday and rain will fall, especially from the High Rhine to Eastern Bavaria, and there will be snow above 600 to 900 meters. It is largely dry in the remaining parts of Germany, and rain may set in on the North Sea during the day, as the DWD also announced. The maximum values are six to twelve degrees, cooler in the Alps. According to the forecasts, Wednesday night will no longer be quite as frosty
According to the police, there were a few weather-related traffic accidents in northern and eastern Hesse on Sunday morning due to the snow, but no serious injuries. According to the German Weather Service, the measured fresh snow depths were “decent”. For example, in Bad Hersfeld in northern Hesse, ten centimeters fell in just a few hours. Some routes in Hesse were no longer passable. In addition to federal, state and district roads, the A7 motorway heading north was also affected.
Snow fell elsewhere too. In Ostwestfalen-Lippe in North Rhine-Westphalia, a number of trees snapped under the weight of snow on Sunday night. As the police reported, this created around 20 danger spots. Local fire brigade helpers removed the fallen trees and cleared the streets.