weather
White weekend for winter sports enthusiasts
Children and adults toboggan on the Monopteros hill in the English Garden in Munich. photo
© Peter Kneffel/dpa
The balance on the ski slopes in Germany should be reasonably positive, at least for this weekend. On the other hand, ice and snow cause numerous accidents on the roads.
“If you want to see winter, you have to go to the Harz mountains.” There was a whole 18 centimeters of fresh snow there, said meteorologist Jens Oehmichen from the German Weather Service (DWD) on Sunday. But not only in the Harz it was wintry at the weekend. In the south of Bavaria and in North Rhine-Westphalia, too, white pistes lured many recreational athletes outside.
At the start of the new week, the experts are still expecting some snow, at least near the Alps. The daily highs should then be minus 2 to plus 4 degrees, in the higher mountains sometimes even lower.
On Saturday, fresh snow had fallen on the peaks in the Allgäu Alps and in the Bavarian Forest. In some places it was icy, for example in Bodenmais or on the Ochsenkopf in the Fichtelgebirge with minus seven degrees. With a more or less thick soup of fog, the visibility was moderate, but many winter sports fans were not put off by this.
In the Sauerland and in the Rothaargebirge there were good winter sports conditions again for the first time after weeks of dry spells. “The conditions are great. It doesn’t get any better than that,” said a spokeswoman for the Sauerland winter sports arena. Skiers and snowboarders also romped around on the slopes in the Harz Mountains and in the Ore Mountains.
Danger of avalanches in the Alps
While the recreational athletes were happy about the snow, drivers shivered from the black ice on the streets: there were traffic accidents in many places, but only a few people were slightly injured. Four people died in accidents in Bavaria, but it was initially unclear what role the weather played in these cases.
The large amount of fresh snow in the Bavarian Alps also brought even more unpleasant things with it. The avalanche danger increased there. Above 2000 meters it is the highest, said the Bavarian avalanche warning service. According to the information, the avalanche danger in parts of the Werdenfelser and Berchtesgadener Alps was significant and was therefore at level 3 of 5.
In the neighboring Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia, heavy snowfall caused widespread power failures and traffic accidents. Several people lost their lives. According to media reports, more than a hundred thousand households in Poland were temporarily without electricity.