Weather: start of winter: freezing rain begins in North Rhine-Westphalia

Stand: 11:11 pm | Reading time: 3 minutes

In parts of North Rhine-Westphalia had a dangerous Saturday night hail used. At first, there were only very small hailstones, said a meteorologist with the German Meteorological Service in Essen on Saturday night. In Siegerland alone, meteorological experts estimated the risk to be very high and warned of widespread black ice.

From Siegerland, the freezing rain spreads at night in a wide swath over Wuppertal and Düsseldorf to the Dutch border. In this area, at least locally, slippery surfaces can be expected, the weather service said.

It could get much more critical over the course of the night further north on NRW. For the region from the Lippe district through Bielefeld and Paderborn to Münster and Unna, the meteorological service warned of heavy snowfall from 9 pm and extremely heavy snowdrifts from midnight.

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Due to the expected strong start of winter, the railway was organized according to its own information in Münster and several other cities. Accommodation options for stranded travelers. This will prepare you if customers can no longer reach their destination by train due to extreme weather, a spokeswoman said Saturday evening. The service personnel at the stations have also been reinforced. Also, they want to help travelers with taxi coupons so they possibly get to their destination after all.

Before departing, travelers should definitely find out if their train is running, either on the internet, on the train app or on the specially configured hotline 08000/996633. The railway had already warned in advance that the expected start of winter could lead to restrictions on rail traffic. People should adhere to the German Weather Service’s warning and stay home if possible, a spokeswoman said.

Regionalbahn in Lower Saxony expects regular operations to start

In the regional Railway provider Metronom in Lower Saxony there was saturday no weather-related train cancellations. This is not to be expected for Sunday either: “According to current forecasts, we expect a regular start of operations on Sunday morning“Said a spokesman in Uelzen. But keep watching the situation closely.

In Lower Saxony, Metronom operates the routes from Göttingen via Hanover to Hamburg and Hamburg-Bremen. The subsidiary Enno leads, among other things, between Hannover and Wolfsburg, the daughter Erixx through the Lüneburg Heath and towards Harz.

In view of the weather, Deutsche Bahn has canceled some long-distance connections in the north as a precaution, including intercity trains from Bremen to Norddeich Mole.

Heavy snow hits southern Lower Saxony

In southern Lower Saxony, around Göttingen, the expected heaviest snowfall began on Saturday night. “It is snowing slowly,” a Göttingen motorway police spokesman said at around 10:30 pm. Traffic on the A7 motorway flows unhindered, the road maintenance department is in action. Osnabrück motorway police said it was cold, but still no snow.

the Traffic management center in Hannover issued to 10 pm a warning for the whole of Lower Saxony. There is danger of that Slippery roads, slippery snow, snowfall and drifting snow. This also applies to motorways. Drivers must drive with special care.

Slippery road accidents

Heavy snowfall resulted in Thuringia in many places too Slippery road accidents. It was mainly with damage to the sheet metal, it was said Saturday night from the situation center of the state police headquarters. A total of more than 70 accidents were reported between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Some trucks were parked on the other side of the Autobahn, for example on Autobahn 4 near Erfurt. In the Hildburghausen district, a car crashed between Rappelsdorf and Zollbrück in the early afternoon. According to the information, four inmates were seriously injured. The damage was estimated at 15,000 euros.