Winter weather
Icy roads and paths: accidents and school cancellations
Attention, slippery: A pedestrian passes a sidewalk in Saarbrücken that has turned into a slide after lightning ice. photo
© Laszlo Pinter/dpa
It is uncomfortable in Germany: Meteorologists are predicting heavy snowfalls and black ice for large parts of the country. Some large airports and Deutsche Bahn have already reacted.
Since the morning, the weather service has warned of a very high risk of black ice due to freezing rain in a strip from Trier to Frankfurt am Main. The risk of slippery roads is very high in the affected regions of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse. Specifically, it said: “Great danger to life and limb due to freezing rain with heavy ice build-up.” In addition, there is widespread icefall. Staying outdoors and traveling should be avoided at all costs.
A severe weather warning for black ice was in effect from the center to the south – for example in parts of Thuringia, Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, in all regions of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. According to the DWD, there is a danger to life and limb from sudden freezing rain. It should snow heavily in the middle. In some parts of the country, emergency services were preparing for things to get even worse in the second half of the day.
School cancellations in several federal states
In North Rhine-Westphalia, snow should start in the morning. From 11 a.m. a severe weather warning is in effect south of Aachen, Cologne, Olpe and Winterberg. Bus and train companies informed their customers that there could be massive delays and cancellations from midday onwards. When they woke up in the morning, many people in the affected districts saw an official warning on their cell phones.
In several federal states such as Bavaria, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, schools remained closed as a precaution. Garbage was no longer picked up in Nuremberg. In the Hessian district of Groß-Gerau, all bus routes operating on behalf of the district were stopped due to black ice.
Travelers nationwide had to prepare for delays and cancellations. This applied to traffic on the roads, to connections by rail and in the air. According to a Fraport spokeswoman, 600 of the 1,047 planned flights at Frankfurt Airport have already been canceled. According to the airport, more than 250 of around 650 planned take-offs and landings were canceled at Munich Airport. There were also isolated failures at the Berlin capital airport BER.
Delays and train cancellations expected on the railway
Patience was also required for train travelers. Deutsche Bahn wrote on its website: “There may be delays and train cancellations in regional and long-distance transport.” As a precaution, the maximum speed of the ICE was limited to 200 kilometers per hour. According to the railway, employees in the affected regions were ready, for example to clear switches or to ensure traffic safety at level crossings.
Late in the morning, the company announced that the situation was manageable. The onset of winter will hit the railway the most in the midday hours, said a spokeswoman. “Then we also expect train cancellations and delays throughout the day.”
Numerous ICE trains were canceled between Paris and Frankfurt as well as Paris and Stuttgart. However, the French TGV trains run on these connections. The reason is that German trains are more susceptible to damage from falling lumps of ice and flying ballast on the French high-speed line to Paris.
In the morning, progress on the roads was slow or not at all. The police reported many accidents in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and Saarland. There were a few injuries, but the incidents usually resulted in property damage. The winter service was in constant use – even in regions where there were no black ice warnings.
Winter sports enthusiasts are happy
However, winter sports enthusiasts were happy about the white splendor in some parts of the country – for example in the winter sports areas in the Sauerland. In the past cold days, the snow cannons in Winterberg, for example, could have produced a lot of technical snow. If natural snow is added now, it would be ideal for the slopes, said the Winterberg ski lift carousel. “The conditions could hardly be better.” Meteorologists are also expecting a few hours of sunshine in the Sauerland at the weekend.
The DWD expected long-lasting freezing rain with black ice across the Eifel, the Hunsrück and Taunus as well as the Spessart, southern Thuringia as well as in Vogtland, eastern Bavaria and the Erzgebirge until the evening. A general relaxation can be expected in the second half of Thursday night.