Germany in winter chaos: Black ice causes numerous accidents - DWD speaks of even more snow
Created: 12/17/2022, 05:00
By: Marc Dimitriu
Germany is in winter chaos.
Large parts of the country are sinking in snow, in the south freezing rain and black ice are causing sometimes chaotic conditions.
The news ticker.
Black ice
and
snow
in Germany: The
winter weather
continues to cause chaos on the streets.
Numerous
accidents
at night: Black ice makes for difficult road conditions.
Next week it will be warm:
thaw
will arrive before Christmas.
This news ticker about the
weather in Germany
is continuously updated.
Update from December 16, 11:08 a.m .:
In northern Germany, there were also some traffic accidents due to prolonged snowfall.
In Schleswig-Holstein there were "about 80 weather and ice-related operations," said a spokesman for the central police control center on Friday.
The majority of these were rather small operations and there were no serious accidents.
The control center is responsible for the areas of Neumünster, Plön, Rendsburg and Kiel.
According to the German Weather Service, there was up to 25 centimeters of fresh snow in the middle of Schleswig-Holstein during the night.
Numerous accidents at night: winter chaos on the roads
Update from December 16, 10:20 a.m .:
The winter weather caused accidents not only in Bavaria, but also in other parts of southern Germany.
In the Rems-Murr district in Baden-Württemberg, two people were injured in an accident on a slippery road.
There was damage of around 50,000 euros, according to the police.
A 22-year-old and a 55-year-old were taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
There have been slippery accidents on many roads in the past few days.
© Armin Weigel/dpa
According to the DWD, a low over the Adriatic Sea that is dissolving in the south and south-east of Germany is still causing snowfall on Friday.
By the evening, however, they should withdraw to the Alps.
It can get slippery here throughout the day.
In the east and center of the Federal Republic, the weather service is currently still warning of severe frost.
Temperatures here can drop to -15 degrees in some areas.
Winter weather in Germany: DWD speaks of even more snow
Update from December 16, 6:10 a.m .:
Snow and black ice have caused chaotic conditions in numerous regions in the past few days.
In the coming days, too, people in Germany will have to prepare for winter weather.
It remains frosty cold, especially at night, as reported by the German Weather Service (DWD).
In the south it should snow at least on Friday.
From the northern Black Forest to the Fichtelgebirge, the meteorologists expected light to moderate snowfall, which should retreat to the Alps in the afternoon and ease up.
There should be isolated snow showers from Emsland to Rügen.
The maximum temperatures are between minus three and plus three degrees.
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For the night on Friday, the meteorologists had again warned of ice in some places in the south.
Snowfall was expected in the south and southeast, and freezing rain was expected from Lake Constance to the greater Passau area.
There should be local snow showers in the north.
Winter in Germany: Weather-related accidents occur especially in the south
There were numerous weather-related accidents on the roads on Friday night, especially in the south.
Five cars slipped on the mirror-smooth A96 in the Landsberg am Lech district, six people were injured.
At least seven other accidents occurred on the A96 between Landsberg-Ost and Greifenberg, a police spokesman said.
Here, too, the freezing rain and the slippery roads were the cause.
But the frosty cold winter weather is unlikely to last for much longer.
It should be increasingly sunny and dry by the weekend.
The temperatures expected on Saturday are between minus six and plus three degrees.
Initially, tough fog and high fog fields are expected.
In the morning, the sun should shine longer in the higher elevations in the west and center as well as in the Alps, and in the afternoon also in the other parts of the country.
From Sunday, the DWD expects warmer temperatures.
The temperatures reach a maximum of zero to three degrees.
In the east, people can also look forward to longer sunny periods, with temperatures ranging from minus five to zero degrees, it remains frosty there.
The DWD expects much milder weather at the beginning of the coming week, but there is a risk of severe weather in the west and southwest in rain with black ice on Monday night.
Black ice over Germany: KATWARN triggers again
Update from December 15, 5:52 p.m .:
The disaster warning service KATWARN has triggered again.
This time a warning was sent out about freezing rain and the resulting black ice.
"The German weather service reports: There is a risk of ice with a potential risk from freezing rain," says the KATWARN statement.
A number of communities in southern Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg are affected.
The DWD has also colored its warning card dark red in the area.
The weather service warns in a wide strip, which extends from Freising via Munich and Landsberg to Constance on Lake Constance, of ice caused by ice rain.
The warning is in effect from 8 p.m. Thursday evening to 4 a.m. Friday morning.
Germany in cold chaos: DWD warns of a new danger in the south - homeless people froze to death in front of the supermarket
Update from December 15, 4:27 p.m.:
The German Weather Service has still issued various warnings for the entire federal territory.
There are warnings of "severe frost" throughout the east of the republic.
Here threaten between -8 and -12 degrees.
"Particularly when the snow clears up, temperatures drop to -15 °C," according to the DWD.
In the rest of the republic, there is a frost warning with temperatures of up to -5 degrees.
In the south of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg there is also a warning of severe weather and black ice on Thursday evening.
"Freezing rain with widespread formation of black ice" is coming from the south.
During the night this rain turns into snow.
The DWD also warns of possible restrictions in road and rail traffic.
According to DWD information, up to 8 centimeters of fresh snow can fall overnight in southern Bavaria.
Update from December 15, 2:46 p.m .:
Because of the low temperatures, there are not only fatal car accidents on the road.
A homeless man apparently froze to death in Frankfurt am Main.
The man died on the street in front of a supermarket, the city said on Thursday.
"My condolences and sympathy go to his relatives, friends and all people to whom the man was important," said Elke Voitl (Greens), head of the social affairs department.
The man's cause of death has not yet been finally clarified, but Voitl called for help to be called in view of the low temperatures if you see a poorly equipped person sleeping outside in the cold.
If there are doubts about someone's health or safety in public spaces, it's always better to get help.
Winter weather also causes chaos at Frankfurt Airport
Update from December 15, 1:21 p.m .:
Because of the icy weather, around two dozen planes at Frankfurt Airport were allowed to take off late on Wednesday evening, despite the ban on night flights.
The reason for this was the de-icing of aircraft, as announced by the Hessian Ministry of Economic Affairs on Thursday.
The delayed flights were allowed to take off between 11 p.m. and midnight by special permit, although there is usually a night flight ban in Frankfurt between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.
On another flight, the luggage of a passenger who did not show up had to be unloaded to be on the safe side.
In addition, seven flights were allowed to land late until shortly before midnight, it said.
Update from December 15, 12:40 p.m .:
The DWD lifted its black ice storm warning on Thursday morning.
The black ice situation in southern Germany is temporarily easing.
However, ice in the south and snowfall in the north are still possible regionally.
According to the current forecast, freezing rain and the formation of black ice must be expected again on Friday night south of the Danube.
"Storms are possible," said the DWD.
Germany: cold and snow until the end of the week - then the thaw will come
Update from December 15, 11:22 a.m .:
December is half over and has turned out very differently than forecast.
It should actually be two degrees warmer than the average climate for the years 1991 to 2020.
"But the month so far has been around two degrees colder than the climate mean," explains qualified meteorologist Dominik Jung, managing director of the weather service Q.met, to the weather portal
wetter.net
.
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, down to -17 degrees were even measured last night.
It will be cold again tonight.
If you are out and about in Baden-Württemberg on Friday night and in the morning, you have to be prepared for black ice again, especially in the south.
Restrictions in road and rail traffic are possible, the German weather service announced on Thursday for the administrative districts of Freiburg and Tübingen.
Vehicles on the A3 motorway in winter weather.
Black ice continues to cause problems in parts of southern Germany.
© Armin Weigel/dpa
Cold and black ice until the end of the week - spring-like temperatures ruin a white Christmas
And according to Jung, it should stay that cold for the time being, it should only get milder at the end of the week.
But that could cause freezing rain again on Monday night.
But then the thaw will probably set in for good.
Jung told
wetter.com
: "On Monday it will be warmer everywhere, in the west up to 10 degrees, on Tuesday even 13 or 14 degrees along the Rhine.
There is thaw up to the highest altitudes.
The cold situation then relaxes significantly.
In addition, it is windy and quite stormy by the sea and in the mountains.”
Over the Christmas holidays, it usually stays in the lowlands in wet and cold, dingy weather around 2 to 7 degrees.
Dominik Jung
Does the almost spring-like thaw mean that we won't have a white Christmas again?
Meteorologist Jung explains: "Towards Christmas Eve it's getting colder again, but not necessarily cold.
Even over the Christmas holidays, it usually stays in the lowlands in wet and cold, dingy weather around 2 to 7 degrees.
On the other hand, there may be snow again at higher altitudes.
However, it is currently not possible to predict whether the snowfall line will drop to low levels over the holidays.” At the moment, the signs are pointing to a green instead of a white Christmas.
Black ice and snow: Numerous car accidents in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg due to winter weather
Update from December 15, 10:41 a.m .:
The difficult road conditions with snow and ice have again led to a large number of accidents in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.
The police headquarters in Upper Bavaria North alone reported 220 traffic accidents within 24 hours on Thursday, one of which was fatal.
In central Baden in the area of the police headquarters in Offenburg, the police reported 112 weather-related traffic accidents within 24 hours.
According to the police headquarters in Oberbayern Nord, a 23-year-old driver died on Wednesday afternoon between Olching and Oberschleißheim who had got into oncoming traffic.
A total of about 30 people were injured in the police area.
As a result of the 112 accidents in Mittelbaden, there were seven injured.
The police headquarters in Lower Bavaria reported 44 traffic accidents with nine injuries by Thursday morning.
Germany in winter chaos: Black ice and snow cause numerous accidents - DWD is still warning today
First report from December 15:
Munich – Winter still has a firm grip on Germany.
Snow and black ice wreak havoc on the streets.
For the extreme south of the country, the German Weather Service (DWD) again warned of black ice on Thursday morning.
From the southern Black Forest to the southern foothills of the Alps and in southern Bavaria, freezing rain and black ice can still be expected in some areas.
"Caution, severe traffic obstructions!" It said in the morning in the DWD warning report.
Freezing rain in southern Germany: A7 near Ulm is scattered.
© IMAGO/Jan Eifert
Weather: snow showers in the north – DWD warns of frost in eastern Germany
In the course of the morning, the freezing rain then eased, which eased the black ice situation.
"On the North Sea there are snow and sleet showers in the area of a small-scale low, otherwise calm winter weather prevails," reported the meteorologists from Offenbach.
In the morning there is light frost in southern Germany and on the coasts at 0 to minus 5 degrees Celsius.
During the day, the DWD warns of permafrost in parts of central and eastern Germany.
Black ice: numerous car accidents near Munich – planes could not land
In the night of Thursday there were crashes on the streets in many places.
There were over a dozen accidents involving 23 vehicles on the A9 and A99 near Munich.
Overall, the damage was around 120,000 euros.
One person was slightly injured, the Freising police said.
On the A8 in Upper Bavaria, a truck accident on a snow-covered road caused a full closure.
A truck had started to sway early Thursday morning near Odelzhausen in the Dachau district, whereupon the truck trailer overturned.
According to police, the driver was not injured.
The A8 was initially completely blocked around the accident site in the direction of Munich.
Freezing rain was already causing problems in parts of southern Germany on Wednesday.
In the meantime, planes had been unable to take off or land at Munich Airport.
Snow and ice: disrupted train traffic in Bavaria
The train company Go-Ahead Bayern reported some damaged trains on Thursday morning as a result of Wednesday's freezing rain.
Therefore, the train service is reduced.
Among other things, trains on the Augsburg-Munich and Augsburg-Ulm routes are canceled.
In the Augsburg network in particular, the vehicles were “not up to the ice”, the company said.
(md with dpa)