The interest in the weather has remained

Manfred Kronier was a weather observer in the observatory on the Hohen Peißenberg for 35 years.

Born in Weilheim, he was already interested in the weather as a child and he won't let go of it even in retirement.

“That was the weather” is the name of the book he has now written about special weather events over the past 120 years.

Hohenpeißenberg - Manfred Kronier describes how his interest in the weather was awakened in the foreword of his book “So war das Wetter”, in which he has compiled special weather events from the past 120 years: “The weather events and their effects on nature have always been there in the foreground of my interests ”, writes Kronier in his book.

Kronier, who was born in 1947, spent his childhood in Weilheim.

In summer the children on the Ammer looked out for floods, in winter their eyes wandered towards Hoher Peißenberg to see if there was snow.

"How wonderful we children could let off steam in nature back then," writes Kronier.

In 1976 he learned the profession of weather observer and one year later, in autumn 1977, he started his service in the observatory on the Hohen Peißenberg.

From then on, the weather was not only a passion, but also a daily bread for Kronier.

For 35 years, the native Weileimer, who later moved to Hohenpeißenberg, observed the weather and recorded his observations on his "home mountain", as he calls the Hohen Peißenberg.

In 2012 the weather observer retired.

But that wasn't about the weather: “The interest has remained,” says Kronier.

And because he has more time in retirement than when he worked in the observatory, the Hohenpeissenberger wrote a book about the weather events of the past 120 years.

“I'm retired, I have to occupy myself a bit - and you just do what you can.” He thought that the outstanding weather events could also interest others and that it would be nice to be able to look up which ones There were weather events in which year.

In the first section of the book, Kronier describes the peculiarities of the weather in the years before his service, considering a period from 1901 to 1976. For example, the coldest winter of the 20th century falls in 1963 with an average temperature of -8, 3 degrees in January and a thick blanket of snow the whole month.

Many lakes are completely frozen over.

A car and motorcycle race with around 8,000 spectators took place on the Ammersee.

Kronier dedicated the second part of the book to observations made during his service from 1977 to 2012.

Among other things, he describes the Whitsun floods in 1999. In the third and last section of his book, the Hohenpeißenberger deals with weather observations that he made after his service from 2012 to 2020.

Among other things, he describes storm "Niklas", which on March 31, 2015 caused great damage.

Kronier also repeatedly addresses climate change and its consequences.

Already in the preface he devotes a larger section to this topic.

The weather observer had 15 copies of “So was the weather” printed before Christmas.

“In the meantime I've given all but two to friends and relatives,” he says.

If possible, Kronier wants to add pictures to his notes and then have more copies printed.

Because he is not only interested in the weather, he is convinced of it.