The “White Giant” comes up to us and brings a good dose of winter, which, however, looks very different in Germany.
The German Weather Service warns of the massive adverse effects of snow and ice this weekend in the northern half of Germany. “The effects of this weather situation will be dramatic,” Franz Molé, head of DWD’s forecasting and advisory center, said on Friday.
In affected areas, people must be prepared for a power outage or that it will be impossible to leave the house due to black ice. Molé: “It goes up from Saturday in the second half of the day.”
Snow landscape in Sieversdorf (Brandenburg). Due to the forecast of heavy snowfall for the weekend, the Brandenburg Interior Ministry recommended that citizens stay home if possible. Caution is also required in other federal statesPhoto: Patrick Pleul / dpa
A special meteorological phenomenon
This is due to a very special border weather situation, according to the German Meteorological Service. “Then extreme temperature differences accumulate in a very narrow space,” said Andreas Friedrich, a DWD spokesman.
Such a small-scale constellation is very rare: “That only happens a few times in the life of a meteorologist.” The extreme snowfall in the winter of 1978/79 is comparable.
Weather forecast for the north
The north is threatened with up to 16 inches of fresh snow, in addition to “huge snowdrifts” from storms. According to the DWD, the region will be hit particularly hard starting Saturday night. Emsland and the Münsterland until Harz.
Am Ruhr area, the Siegerland, in Central hesse Y Upper Franconia on the other hand, there are freezing rains from Sunday afternoon until Monday, which could result in a layer of ice several centimeters thick.
DWD expects major traffic disruptions due to heavy freezing rain and damage to nature from ice breaking.
Especially that southern Lower Saxony A strong start to winter is expected. According to the German Weather Service, the snowfall should start on Saturday night and continue on Sunday. There will likely be between 8 and 12 inches of snow. For Saxony-Anhalt It said: “From Sunday it will be chaos with lots of snow and snowdrifts.”
It is really inconceivable in Germany that a car has to be cleared of snow from one meter high. It has happened before, like here on January 2, 1979 in Hamburg.Photo: Lothar Heidtmann / dpa
Due to the forecast of heavy snowfall for the weekend, the Brandenburg Interior Ministry recommended that citizens stay home if possible.
“Snowfall, which may be stronger in some areas, should be accompanied by moderate to severe frosts,” ministry spokesman Martin Burmeister said on Friday. Therefore, at the end of the weekend and at the beginning of next week, slippery conditions are expected.
The traffic situation
DWD meteorologists expect supra-regional effects on the road and rail routes. The north highway maintenance depots are ready: they would be alone in Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and in Northern Lower Saxony with around a hundred cleaning and cleaning vehicles and 250 employees ready around the clock to keep the roughly 750 kilometers of motorway in these regions snow and ice free over the weekend, said a spokeswoman for the Northern branch of Autobahn GmbH of the federal government.
The spokeswoman appealed to motorists to adapt their driving style to the weather conditions and not to overtake vehicles that clear snow and make sand.
Deutsche Bahn reported: “There may be train delays and cancellations.” Passengers who wanted to postpone planned trips for the weekend due to the announced start of winter in northern Germany could use long-distance tickets already booked “flexibly or free of charge” up to and including seven days after the end of the interruption.
Network operators are preparing for disruptions due to a snowstorm
Network operators are also bracing for potential disruptions in light of anticipated snowstorms, storms and freezing rain. “Looking ahead to the next few days, we maintain a high alert level and a wide range of line reservations and we are also in contact with other network operators,” said Tennet spokesman Mathias Fischer. If the lines are damaged, the damage can be compensated by safety reserves through other lines. A short-term start-up of additional power plants is also possible. The company operates Germany’s longest extra-high voltage network from Schleswig-Holstein to Bavaria.
Experience from previous storms has been gained and incorporated into network maintenance programs; for example, the stability of electrical power towers has been increased.
Network operator Avacon, whose high-voltage network stretches from the North Sea to the Main, has called in several hundred technicians and installers on standby. “They are available as potential amplifiers,” said a company spokesman. Service providers and civil engineering companies were also alerted as a precaution against potential disruptions.
“Above all, metallic lines are a target,” the spokesman said. If layers of ice up to a foot thick are placed on power lines, the lines could break. Another danger comes from heavy, wet snow. Trees collapsing under snow load could fall onto cables and cause short circuits.
Oldenburg energy company EWE looks well prepared for the start of winter. The low and medium voltage lines operated by the supplier are completely underground. “We are not assuming there will be problems,” said an EWE spokesman. However, the company is closely monitoring the weather.
The weather forecast for the south
“The southern half is mostly warning-free over the weekend,” the DWD forecast said. “At the edge of the Alps there is temporarily a stormy southern foehn, raising the highs on Saturday to 15 degrees.” For the southwest, the weather service was expecting temperatures of 8 to 13 degrees over the weekend.
Munich, February 4: The sun shines with spring temperatures in the empty beer garden at Wienerplatz in the Haidhausen district.Photo: Peter Kneffel / dpa
And in the middle? It becomes dangerous there too!
In the border area of the two air masses, for example from north of North Rhine-Westphalia Y Northern hesse above Thuringia to the South saxony Y Saxony-Anhalt According to the DWD, there could be freezing rain and “extreme black ice.”
Floods in some regions
In some rivers like that Rhein the water levels are still high. The water level in Suburb he was 8.54 meters tall at dawn on Friday, about 33 centimeters more than the day before. The situation is not dramatic, said Marlene Willkomm, deputy director of the flood protection center in Cologne. “This is a normal winter flood.” Colonia is safe up to a water level of 11.30 meters. On Thursday, shipping on the Rhine in Cologne was initially suspended due to the flood.
Bonn on February 5: water from the Rhine flooded a streetPhoto: Marius Becker / dpa
Not only in the extreme west of Germany, but also in the Elba in the east there are floods, here due to thaw and rain in the Czech river catchment area. “The wave is rolling,” said a spokeswoman for the State Office for Environment, Agriculture and Geology (LfULG) in Dresden. The elongated flood peak becomes Monday night Annoyance However, hydrologists currently do not expect Alert Level 2 to be exceeded. “There are local restrictions, but no serious danger.”
By the way: according to the German Weather Service, February will remain deeply wintry for a long time. In the next week there is a local risk of minus 20 degrees at night.
Photo: Patrick Pleul / dpa
Photo: Lothar Heidtmann / dpa
Photo: Peter Kneffel / dpa
Photo: Marius Becker / dpa