People in northern Franconia and eastern Bavaria still have to prepare for slippery roads. Freezing rain and freezing wet conditions are expected to continue to cause black ice on Thursday, as the German Weather Service (DWD) announced.
On Thursday, meteorologists also expect five to ten centimeters of fresh snow on the Rhön and the Franconian Forest. It is also expected to snow again in Oberallgäu and Berchtesgadener Land. As the day progresses, people in Bavaria will experience slight permanent frost and sub-zero temperatures.
It’s expected to get colder again on Friday: According to the DWD, temperatures are between minus four and plus two degrees. The sun sometimes peeks through between the clouds, but at night it gets cloudier and colder again with temperatures between minus four and minus ten degrees. In some Alpine valleys it is even below minus 15 degrees. According to the forecast, the weekend will bring sunshine. However, it will still be frosty with a weak to moderate southerly wind.
Freezing rain and slippery conditions had already caused numerous slides and many school cancellations in Bavaria on Wednesday. Two women were seriously injured in a slippery road accident in the Eichstätt district. A 36-year-old and a 57-year-old woman collided head-on with their vehicles on Wednesday afternoon, a police spokesman said.
The German Weather Service warned of significant slippery conditions and frost for the northern part of Lower Franconia on Thursday morning. The Lower Franconian district of Rhön-Grabfeld had stopped bus services from Wednesday afternoon because of the warning. It was initially unclear whether buses would run again on Thursday.
Particularly in Franconia and Eastern Bavaria, face-to-face teaching at schools was canceled in a number of districts and independent cities. In-person classes will also be canceled in parts of Bavaria on Thursday. As an overview from the Ministry of Culture shows, Lower Franconia is particularly affected. Accordingly, the districts of Miltenberg, Main-Spessart, Rhön-Grabfeld as well as the city and district of Schweinfurt are affected.
Normal operations again at Munich Airport
Munich Airport returned to normal operations on Thursday after the weather-related disruptions. There are currently no restrictions due to slippery conditions or freezing rain, a spokesman said this morning. The airlines have not currently canceled any flights. Snowfall was expected in Munich in the afternoon. However, the airport expected to be able to cope with this. On Wednesday, around 250 flights were canceled at the airport due to weather – a little more than a third of the planned take-offs and landings. As the day progressed, the situation returned to normal.
In Nuremberg, the city stopped garbage collection on Wednesday because of the “extreme slippery conditions.” It was said that the danger for the employees and road users was too high.
Confusion in Ebersberg
The Ebersberg district administrator Robert Niedergesäß (CSU) apologized on Wednesday for very late information about the school cancellation in his district. “The criticism is completely justified,” he wrote on Facebook. The “far too short-term decision” is “unacceptable” for students, parents, schools and teachers. According to the district office, the road maintenance department and police only expressed concerns around 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning that the road conditions could be too dangerous. A coordination group then exchanged ideas and informed all departments. According to a spokeswoman for the authority, the “reporting chain” was started around 7 a.m.
Delays and train cancellations on the railway
Rail traffic was also affected by the slippery conditions. “There may be delays and train cancellations in regional and long-distance transport throughout Germany,” said a spokeswoman for Deutsche Bahn. As a precaution, the DB limited the maximum speed of the ICE to 200 kilometers per hour. Train traffic between Murnau am Staffelsee and Oberammergau was stopped on Wednesday due to the forecast of freezing rain and the risk of slippery roads.