It’s a dangerous mix of frost and humidity: Drivers, especially in southern Germany, have to be prepared for icy roads. The German Weather Service (DWD) warned of freezing rain for Wednesday and issued a severe weather warning.
“The entire area south of the Black Forest-Inn line is at risk, but it is still unclear exactly where the freezing rain will fall,” said meteorologist Markus Ubel. “The further south, the more likely the freezing rain is.”
Numerous accidents
There have already been a number of accidents on the roads in many regions in the past few days. In the east of Saxony, a bus came off a snow-covered road near Großdubrau on Monday and crashed into trees. A nine-year-old child and a 55-year-old man were injured, according to police. In Bavaria, several people were injured near Bieberehren in the Würzburg district when a 22-year-old drove his car into oncoming traffic and collided head-on with another car, the police said. In Wolgast (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania), a car crashed into a tree on slippery roads and caught fire. According to the police, the 58-year-old driver was taken to a clinic by rescue workers.
The police and meteorologists called on the drivers to adjust their speed to the weather. According to the DWD, there will be plenty of fresh snow on Wednesday from the Danube to the middle of Germany – one to five centimeters of snow are possible, locally it can be even more. In the northern half, on the other hand, it will be mostly sunny. At night it even gets bitterly cold in the north, east and center of Germany with temperatures as low as minus ten degrees.
On Thursday, the danger of ice in the south has not yet been completely banned, freezing rain can continue to fall in the region from Lake Constance to the Inn. North of here it’s snowing again, similar to the day before. In the course of the day, the precipitation decreases everywhere.
Freezing rain is when rain or drizzle falls from a warmer layer of air into a colder layer. When the supercooled drops of water hit the frozen ground, they instantly turn into ice crystals and cover streets, buildings and cars with a thin layer of ice. The phenomenon is therefore also called freezing rain. Freezing rain is relatively rare in Europe’s temperate latitudes, but very common on the east coast of the United States.
DLRG warns against entering ice surfaces
Meanwhile, the German Life Saving Society (DLRG) warned against stepping on ice surfaces on bodies of water. In most cases, the ice cover is certainly still too thin, the organization said. You should wait until the ice surface is cleared before skating or walking on the ice.
“The ice needs time to be stable. It should be at least 15 centimeters thick on standing water and even 20 centimeters thick on streams and rivers,” said Alexander Paffrath, head of operations in the DLRG Presidium. Ice surfaces should therefore not be walked on on the first frosty days. There is danger to life.
