The year is coming to an end and winter is making itself comfortable in Germany. From the coast to the Alps, a white sheet has settled over towns and landscapes and given many a body of water an icy coating. According to the German Weather Service, this will remain the case in the coming days. On Friday, the meteorologists are expecting an often cheerful but cold winter day with maximum temperatures between minus three and plus three degrees. For the weekend, the DWD predicts calm and dry-cold conditions. It should only become much milder at the beginning of next week.
And elsewhere, too, winter has set in just in time for Christmas. Heavy snow swept across parts of the UK earlier in the week and temperatures in otherwise mild London fell well below freezing. Skiers and snowboarders stormed the pistes and slopes in the Czech Eagle Mountains. In the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, snow transformed parks into winter wonderlands. In California, a winter storm put a white cap on the mountains. And Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul, South Korea, hid behind a veil of snowflakes.
Snow and ice cause chaos – but also joy
Of course, the winter weather does not only have good sides. In Bavaria it led to massive traffic problems. At times, planes were no longer able to take off and land at Munich Airport on Wednesday, and there were also canceled connections on Thursday. Londoners too have endured chaos and long traffic jams on the main thoroughfares around the British capital due to snow and black ice. And in the United States, severe weather warnings have been issued in several states because of the winter storms.
Nevertheless, many people are happy about the white splendor: “Well, I like it. I think it’s beautiful. The dogs have fun, I have fun. Beautiful, fresh snow is a very great thing. Better than rain and mud,” enthused a walker in a Frankfurt park, according to the Reuters news agency.
“I think it’s really nice that it’s winter again,” said a Christmas market visitor to Reuters. “We hadn’t had that for a few years and everyone is talking about the climate crisis. And it might be nice if you have snow again and decent, low temperatures, so that nature can adjust accordingly.”
The pictures of the last few days in the photo gallery above show how beautiful winter can look, but also how bizarre.