January started with a record

Created: 2022-02-10Updated: 2022-02-10, 2:45 p.m

"The stormy days have created the red stripe on the horizon and the wild cloud formations over the Hoher Peißenberg," writes Bessy Schnaitter - she took the picture from Aidenried at the end of January.

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The year started unusually mild, the turn of the year was one of the warmest in history.

And the sun shone significantly longer on the Hoher Peißenberg in January than the long-term average.

Hohenpeissenberg

– January began as extremely mildly as December had ended – the turn of the year was one of the warmest in weather history.

From December 30th to January 2nd it was up to 13 degrees Celsius too warm on average.

The maxima ranged between 11.3 and 14.9 degrees and thus roughly corresponded to the temperature level at the end of April.

The very mild south-west current, which lasted from Christmas onwards, also brought the hibernation to an end for the time being: the vegetation spurt was already observed on the hazel blossoms in Peißenberg and Peiting around the turn of the year.

The hazel blossom is considered an indicator of early spring.

This extremely warm period of weather was brought back down to seasonal normal levels from January 5 with the intrusion of cold polar air.

By January 12th, there were alternating frosty days on the Hoher Peißenberg, but also ice days (maximum below zero degrees Celsius) in the slightly frosty area.

It was very changeable with daily snowfalls as well as snow and sleet showers.

The snow cover lasted from January 5 to the end of the month and was a maximum of 16 centimeters deep.

Despite only light frost and a relatively low snow depth, the Hoher Peißenberg in connection with fog and frost deposits on the trees in January mostly presented itself quite wintry.

From January 12th, an Atlantic high pressure area moved to Germany, until January 19th this often meant very nice mountain weather with distant views and fog in the valleys (sea of ​​fog).

From January 20 to 23, the high-pressure weather ended briefly, because a cold front with heavy snow showers crossed us on the 20th with a north-west flow.

Permafrost prevailed from January 21 to 23, with almost continuous snowfall over the weekend of January 22 and 23.

From January 24th – under the influence of high pressure – the Hoher Peißenberg was able to make the most of its privileged location.

As is so often the case this winter, cloudy and cold, wet weather prevailed across the country, while from 24th to 27th January there were almost no clouds on the Hoher Peißenberg.

Temperatures rose to eight degrees Celsius during the day, and light frosts set in at night.

From the 28th, an increasingly cyclonic, i.e. northwesterly flow characterized by the influence of low pressure, set in.

The brought precipitation areas were dammed up in the Alps and increased the snow depths there.

On January 31, 13 liters per square meter of precipitation fell as snow on the Hoher Peißenberg – the highest daily total of the month.

Several hurricane lows affected Germany by the end of the month.

A wind peak of 31 m/s or 112 km/h was measured on the Hoher Peißenberg on January 31 (wind force 11 on the Beaufort scale).

Overall, January was 2.1 degrees too warm with a monthly average temperature of 0.5 degrees Celsius (long-term average used from 1961-1990).

The warmest day was January 2nd at 14.9 degrees Celsius, the coldest was January 12th (-7.7 degrees). There were 25 frost days, nine days of permafrost (ice days).

There was precipitation on 16 days, which corresponds to 55 liters per square meter, 90 percent of the expected long-term total.

The sun shone on the Hoher Peißenberg for 121 hours (131 percent), well above the long-term average.

Siegmar Lorenz, weather observer