Winter continues in Germany. While temperatures are falling low in the north, new snow awaits the south. There may be limited winter service in three northern federal states.
The German Weather Service (DWD) issued an official ice warning for a large part of Germany for the second night in a row, which is valid until Thursday at 11 a.m. There is also a warning of severe frost for parts of Schleswig-Holstein. A meteorologist from the DWD said on Thursday morning: “The winter weather is continuing and it is getting colder.”
A Eurowings plane slid off the runway at Hamburg Airport on Wednesday evening due to black ice. A spokeswoman for Eurowings said that the plane that had come from Stuttgart slipped during the parking process. Nobody got hurt. According to the airport, operations continued as normal.
Road maintenance departments in three other northern federal states are scheduled to go on strike on Thursday. In Lower Saxony and Bremen, the Verdi union called on road maintenance workers to go on a 24-hour warning strike starting at 6 a.m. in the collective bargaining dispute in the state’s public sector. In Schleswig-Holstein, Verdi called on employees in the state road construction and transport company to go on strike. There is “only limited winter service,” the union said.
There were no major restrictions on the roads in Schleswig-Holstein at night. “Everything is very frozen and almost minus 10 degrees. But so far it’s quiet. With the warning strike, we have to see if everything is going well,” said a spokesman in the Schleswig-Holstein situation center.
Only a few weather-related accidents were reported in eastern Germany: In the town of Anklam in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a car struck the sliding sign of an oncoming snow clearance vehicle on a snowy road on Wednesday evening. According to police, the car then spun and collided with an oncoming van that was driving behind the clearing vehicle. Two men were slightly injured.
In Thuringia, there are minor incidents on the highways in the Thuringian Forest area, reported a spokesman for the situation center there. “Sometimes there are one or two cars or trucks that don’t cope well with the snow. Sometimes they hit the central barrier or go into a ditch, but without any major damage to property or people. Everything that happens in winter.”
According to the situation center, things were also quiet on the streets of Berlin. “It is significantly better than in the last two years with several traffic accidents due to the weather,” said a spokesman. According to the police, there had been almost 180 police operations due to traffic accidents in the capital by mid-morning on Wednesday.
“There is snow in parts of Saarland and we also have ice on the roads, but so far no major weather-related accidents,” said the situation center in Saarland. In Baden-Württemberg, the situation center also reported snow in places, but no particular accident hotspots.
A meteorologist from the DWD said that there was permanent frost almost everywhere during the day, especially in the north. In Schleswig-Holstein the temperature dropped to minus 14 degrees at night. “This is quite remarkable for the region and time of year and is not an everyday occurrence.” There will be snow on Thursday, especially in the extreme south. “Snowfalls are moving from southern Baden-Württemberg to Bavaria over the course of the day. But since the temperatures here are still slightly positive in some cases, not everything stays put,” said the weather expert.
