Weather balance
January 2024 will be warmer than in comparable years
January brought frost and snow – but according to a preliminary assessment, it was still warmer than the long-term comparison. photo
© Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa
From frost to spring: There was a lot of variety in the weather in the first month of the new year. January stood out especially when it came to sunshine.
The range ranged from frost to spring: the DWD recorded the national low on January 20th in Leutkirch-Herlazhofen in the Allgäu with minus 19.5 degrees. Shortly afterwards it became unusually mild. On January 24th, the DWD measured a widespread temperature of 13 to 15 degrees. With Föhn, Piding in Berchtesgadener Land reached the previous nationwide high of 17.8 degrees.
At the same time there was a lot of precipitation. The DWD registered around 74 liters per square meter, a good fifth more than in the reference period from 1961 to 1990 and almost 15 percent more than in the period between 1991 and 2020. It rained heavily, especially at the beginning of the year, with the highest daily amount coming on the 2nd. January at the Kirchberg/Niederbayern-Zell station in the Bavarian Forest totaled 65.6 liters.
Snow then turned almost all of Germany white. According to the DWD, the most snow days were in the far north, in the foothills of the Alps and in the southern and central low mountain ranges. On January 17, freezing rain in central Germany caused dangerously slippery sidewalks and roads.
With a sunshine duration of 70 hours, January 2024 made it into fifth place among the sunniest months since records began in 1881. The values from the comparison periods are 44 (period 1961 to 1990) and 52 hours (1991 to 2020). In the southwest there were even 100 hours of sunshine.