"Battle of the Giants" over Germany: Christmas with snow or rain?

Created: 12/25/2021, 06:08 AM

From: Marcus Giebel, Julia Volkenand

Once again, the hope for snow at Christmas was in vain - at least for most of the country.

At the turn of the year there are even spring fever.

The weather ticker.

• The prospects for a White Christmas this year seemed unusually good - but the reality on December 24th.

  looks different.

• During the holidays, an air mass limit in the middle of the country divides the weather in two

  (see original report).

• In the Free State of Bavaria, the white Christmas could fall into the water (

  see update from December 24th, 10.18 a.m.)

• This weather ticker is updated regularly.

Update from December 24th, 11:09 am

: Some regions of Germany can look forward to a real white Christmas.

Elsewhere it is more likely to be rainy.

Where does it get cold for Christmas and where does snow fall?

That is why there is a struggle in heaven to the last.

"It is comparable to a battle of the giants," said meteorologist Martin Jonas from the weather forecast center of the German Weather Service (DWD) on Thursday in Offenbach.

Two high pressure areas and two low pressure areas are vying for supremacy in the Federal Republic.

"Such a constellation is called a four-pressure field," explained the meteorologist.

Four pressure centers face each other at the corners of an imaginary square, with the two lows and highs each facing diagonally.

One team tries to bring us polar air, the other wants to prevent it.

"In such a four-way pressure field, the rivals are quite unforgiving," said Jonas.

"When the air masses wrestle, sometimes the cold and sometimes the warm air can move forward a little."

Meteorologist on Christmas weather: "Battle of the giants"

The result is rain or snow.

“When the cold air moves south, the rain turns into snow at the air mass limit.

When the warm air moves north, the snow turns into rain, ”explained the meteorologist.

It becomes dangerous because the rain can easily freeze and thus make it slippery.

On Christmas Eve it looks as if “the cold air is shifting forward,” says Jonas.

This means that the rain should turn into snow, especially in a strip from Saxony to Westphalia.

The situation could shift to the northeast on Saturday.

Then there is a risk of ice from the northwest to Upper Franconia.

Accordingly, on Friday it would snow in the northern half and rain in the south.

From the Rhineland to Upper Franconia and the Ore Mountains, the DWD expects little rainfall.

The maximum temperature in the northeast is between 1 and 4 degrees, otherwise 4 to 10 degrees.

On Saturday and Sunday, the DWD expects a split in the weather: over the southern half and the west, thick clouds and often rainy, from Saxony to Westphalia sometimes heavy snowfalls and in places freezing rain.

The maximum values ​​are here at two to ten degrees.

In the north it will be sunny and dry at minus five to zero degrees.

Update from December 24th, 10.18 a.m

.: White Christmas?

Not in Bavaria, if you can believe the experts.

People in the Free State can expect snow and rain over Christmas.

The German Weather Service announced that on Friday morning it should rain from the Danube region to the northern Alpine foothills from time to time.

The north of Bavaria is expecting drier weather with clouds.

Temperatures range between three degrees in the Bavarian Forest and a proud ten degrees near the Alps.

White Christmas?

Experts give a bitter forecast for Bavaria

According to the German Weather Service, there should be a white Christmas in northern Franconia on Christmas Day.

In southern Bavaria and Central Franconia, however, it remains rainy.

The temperatures here are between minus one degree and nine degrees.

The second day of Christmas will be milder with values ​​of one degree in Vogtland and eight degrees on Lake Constance.

Original message from December 23rd

: Munich - Christmas holidays and snow - that used to be a common constellation.

But the festival of love and white splendor have long since drifted apart.

Meterologist Dominik Jung also had to address this bitter truth in his prognosis, which in his opinion amounts to a “great disillusionment”.

Because, according to the qualified meteorologist, an 80 percent chance of a White Christmas had been calculated in advance and the prospects seemed to be intact even in mid-December *, it is now clear: This will not work again.

At least for most of Germany *.

Weather at Christmas: Snow probably only in the northeast and possibly in the east

Only in the east and north-east could flakes snowfall that stay on the ground over the holidays.

However, the different weather models are by no means unanimous, possibly only the extreme northeast is considered.

Otherwise there is even a threat of black ice in eastern Bavaria and in the north-west as well as hurricane gusts * on the Brocken and in the high altitudes of the Ore Mountains on Thursday evening.

Over the weekend there will be a competition between the cold air masses in the north and the significantly warmer air masses from the southwest.

On the retreat: there is still some snow in many places.

© Michael Reichel / dpa

Weather around Christmas: air mass limit in the middle of Germany

"On Christmas Day we will get an air mass limit over Germany, sometimes with snowfall down to the deepest elevations," warns Jung, who is also expecting freezing rain.

"Night frost down to minus 15 degrees" is also possible.

But in the new week it will be much milder, "a mountain of heat is on the horizon here in Germany at the turn of the year".

Goodbye winter - at least for a few days.

Christmas Eve will start with a thaw, however, as the temperatures are rising again after the light snowfall in the northeast and eastern Bavaria.

In the afternoon it will be colder again from the north, further precipitation is to be expected before the said air mass limit builds up on Saturday.

This probably runs through North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse and northern Bavaria.

Thus, the Federal Republic is divided into two parts when it comes to the weather: In the north, minus degrees are possible, the south-west probably gets eight or nine degrees.

Weather at the end of the year: December has been too warm so far and temperatures are expected to rise again

On Boxing Day, the warmer air should hold its own in the competition and push the cold north out of the country.

“On Monday it will only be moderately cool”, emphasizes Jung, according to which December will already be 1.1 degrees too warm and thus the fourth month in a row with an average temperature above the long-term average.

It will be a bit colder in the middle of the week.

However, Jung explains: "But that is not enough to produce down to snowfall." Even afterwards, you will not be able to see anything of the white splendor again so quickly.

Rather, there is a "shock for all winter friends".

A rare sight in the coming days: the snow will soon have a hard time in view of rising temperatures.

© Hendrik Schmidt / dpa

Weather at the turn of the year: Up to 15 degrees possible on New Year's Day

At the turn of the year, the forecasts say that seven to eight degrees are measured even at an altitude of 1,500 meters.

Just the beginning of an uninterrupted trend: “It could get very warm on New Years Day.

14, 15 degrees would be quite conceivable on the Upper Rhine. ”In the north-east, the cold will hold up against it - but it is questionable how far it can spread in the country again.

While the American weather model predicts temperatures around freezing point for this part of the country, “basically spring-like warmth” could prevail in the west and southwest.

This development will apparently continue everywhere in the Federal Republic until January 8, before it gets cooler.

Precipitation * in the form of rain is to be expected again and again, which can be more powerful.